Troublemaker reviewed in The New Yorker
The New Yorker has published a review of Troublemaker entitled, “The High-Born Rebel Who Took Up the Cause of the Commoner,” for its December 8th issue.
Rachel Syme writes:
How could lives so intertwined take such wildly different paths? The question has propelled historians and tabloid journalists alike for decades, to the point that, in her own lifetime, Decca would often joke about the relentlessness of the “Mitford industry.” This year alone has delivered a scripted series (“Outrageous,” on BritBox) and a graphic biography (Mimi Pond’s “Do Admit! The Mitford Sisters and Me”), but perhaps the most significant contribution is “Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford,” by Carla Kaplan (Harper), a professor of literature at Northeastern University. Though Decca’s life has been studied before (notably in Mary S. Lovell’s magisterial 2001 group biography, “The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family”), Kaplan is devoted to Decca alone, and to separating her crusading accomplishments from the sins of the flock.