Six Exceptional Women

In this second volume of memoirs (the first was Picasso and Dora ) from the author of the definitive biography of Giacometti, we are in the Europe of rich young expatriates finding themselves, their sexuality and culture in Paris, Venice and London. With the exception of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, the people Lord recalls are not famous: the actress Arletty (Leonie Bathiat); an eccentric aristocrat, Marie-Laure, Viscountess de Noailles; a Greek woman Errieta Perdikidi; and the author's mother, Louise Bennett Lord. Lord, an American of considerable education with financially supportive parents, integrates himself into European society so completely that his native Englewood, N.J., is finally left behind. (His parents struggle nobly to understand his financial extravagance and his sexual preferences.) The most moving of these mini-biographies is that of Errieta Perdikidi, whom Lord got to know as a summer lodger in her home. She had moved to the Greek island of Skyros, married a carpenter much younger than herself, heroically protected him throughout WW II, only to be discarded for a wife who could bear him children. Lord is a witty and elegant writer, catching the foibles and virtues of his subjects and chronicling his own succession of lovers with matter-of-fact precision. He is a gentle and literate companion; his book, a deeply affectionate reminiscence of friendships. (Apr.)