The Swans of Fifth Avenue

Much of the novel’s drama centers on Truman and Babe’s relationship, as well as the broader dynamic of friendship and betrayal. The two elements are in constant tension, and often become inextricable from each other. Truman’s betrayal in the form of “La Côte Basque 1965” is foregrounded at the beginning of the text, and it looms over the scenes from earlier days of his friendship with the swans. The immediate presence of “betrayal,” turns friends into “friends.” Truman betrays the swans, but he doesn’t betray his friends—they weren’t his friends in the first place—or so he thinks later. While watching Babe’s funeral, Truman hisses, “You were just material. And I fooled you. I fooled you all” (494). In this moment of profound frustration, Truman depicts the swans as objects he has exploited to expand his fame. It is clear, however, that Truman is lying to himself. In the high-society world of the swans, friendship is inherently competitive, aspirational, and acquisitive. Whatever their genuine feelings for each other, they are always also angling to increase their own social capital, sometimes at the expense of the others. Truman has finally lost this game, and his callous proclamation of victory is meant to shield him from the pain of defeat. They were his friends, but he let his endless craving for fame lead him to betray them. Rather than admit his weakness, he tells himself he never cared about them as friends.

In some ways, Truman is simply representing what he has witnessed. He did not invent the dynamics of friendship and betrayal in this group of women, and the stories he shares in his Esquire piece were told to him by other people. The most scandalous anecdote in “La Côte Basque, 1965” concerns Bill Paley’s sexual affair with Slim Keith. The circulation of this particular bit of gossip, even prior to the publication of Truman’s story, makes it nearly impossible to tease apart friendship and betrayal. Slim loves Babe, but she betrayed her by sleeping with Bill—and then even went so far as to tell Babe about it, without revealing the identity of her partner. Bill also loves Babe—though it took the cancer to make him realize how much—and slept with Slim and many other women. Truman loves Babe, but he absorbs the new information about Bill without planning on revealing it to Babe, even though it later appears in his story.

In the world of the swans, gossip is a source or power. To share a juicy story—even while leaving out the names of those involved—is to show that one has privileged access, insider knowledge. This knowledge is a form of capital, and Truman’s mistake is that he tries to use that capital outside of the narrow arena in which its use is sanctioned. By publishing the swans’ secrets in a national magazine, he breaks the most fundamental rule of their charmed circle, revealing the ugliness underneath the glamorous surfaces of their lives for all to see. This is the one betrayal for which he cannot be forgiven.