The Hostess Diaries: My Year at a Hotspot
Coco Henson Scales
The New Kings of NonFiction

This piece drew me in right away. Initially it was because Ira Glass summarized in it in an extremely effective way-- "It is possibly the greatest New York Times "Styles Section" that will ever be written." I also have an intense fascination with the rich and powerful. The lives of the "haves" bewilders and amazes me. Once I began reading however I was grasped by the narrator. I found her wholly unappealing which, for me makes her appealing. I love honest unlikeable protagonists. The first glimpse the reader is awarded of this women is how she is "patiently waiting for costumers, so that I can turn them away." That is followed by her mocking sincerity "I bite my bottom lip as though I am genuinely concerned for them" and ego trips "I turn away--or even better- pick the group behind them."

The narrator is honest in herself. She is proud of the average of her life and in that way creates an interesting contrast to the celebrities she caters too. Celebrities who are much the same as her but discontent in the symbolence of power they hold. Scales is aware of how mundane life is "with so much time together, we end up repeating the same stories over and over" which makes it interesting how she holds the power against these people who believe that their own lives are so fascinating. When Naomi Campbell wears the same dress to Hue that she had the previous time the owner of the restaurant comments on it in a way that shows a disappointment in Campbell because she would be ashamed of the repetition unlike Scales who owns it.

I also was intrigued by how politicians and super models are reduced to the same personality in Scales stories. You treat someone like a celebrity and they will act like it.

Questions;

Did you in honesty enjoy the people who frequented the restaurant?
Did the focus on appearances empower you or make you fell belittled?