Public Smiles, Private Tears

Beverly Thyson's extraordinary rise in the ruthless world of women's fashion astonishes everyone-including herself. But her personal life (including one failed marriage and an exciting but unfulfilling affair) makes Bev feel she is lacking as a woman. Using all of her strength and intuition to reach the very pinnacle of success, she is still constantly searching for love. PUBLIC SMILES, PRIVATE TEARS is not only Bev's story-it is the story of an entire generation of women who find themselves in a world where traditional standards and assumptions no longer work. There is Ruth who followed the rules, Marion who broke them, and Sylvia-who created her own. Here too are the men who loved them, used them, worshiped them from afar, hurt them-and sometimes left them. Helen Van Slyke draws upon her own experience in the glittering world of the powerful to tell a fascinating story of the people she knows so well: their successes and failures, their triumphs and tragedies, their public smiles and their private tears.