THE WHITE BLACKBIRD A Life of the Painter Margarett Sargent by Her Granddaughter

Stockard Channing's eccentric, canny, and wholly absorbing performance is perfect for this quite riveting biography. The poet Honor Moore follows her bestselling life of her father, Episcopal Bishop Paul Moore, with a study of her grandmother, Margarett Sargent, a gifted painter, Boston Brahmin, and society "it" girl. Margarett is compellingly interesting in the way of Zelda Fitzgerald, except that her worldly and artistic gifts were all her own, not acquired by marriage. Her achievements, flamboyant glamour, social position, mental instability, and bisexuality make for a potent brew. Channing's tone and accent are perfect, and she is wonderfully in control here, hitting all the right notes in a piece that is as much about class, period, and place as about Margarett's singular and ultimately shattering story. B.G. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2020]