The Swans of Fifth Avenue

Where Truman Capote left a large archive of published and unpublished writing, to say nothing of a flamboyant social record, the historical Babe Paley remains a much more reticent figure. One of the main imaginative tasks of The Swans, then, is Benjamin’s speculative rendering of Babe’s inner life. Babe, in the novel’s telling, is introspective and thoughtful. She does not overrate her intellectual powers, nor is she necessarily the most naturally beautiful or the most fun woman in a given room. What she does have is style and grace, undergirded by an anxiety about being enough and loveable. Unlike most of the swans, Babe doesn’t delight in vicious gossip. She’s relatively loyal to her friends and to Bill––though Bill constantly cheats on her and treats her like an assistant.

With Truman, Babe airs her “dirty laundry.” Since Babe thinks she’s confiding in a friend, it’s not the same as telling the public. In Truman’s presence, Babe doesn’t have to be a beautiful, stylish object: She can be a person. Truman sees “right through her—the makeup, the clothes she’d picked out so carefully” (93). Truman understands Babe’s truth, and the two become best friends and soulmates. They have a passionate (though nonsexual) bond that Truman betrays when he uses her and Bill as characters in his salacious story and airs their “dirty laundry.” In the story, acting as a high-minded protagonist, Babe forgives Truman and they briefly reconcile. Babe’s last words center on her love for Truman.

From one angle, Bill Paley is the archetypal toxic man and husband. He cheats on Babe and treats her like an assistant or employee. As with his first wife, Bill didn’t marry Babe so much as hire her. The narrator explains, “[He] selected her for the job” (155). Though Bill is a media mogul—the founder of CBS—he can’t control his cravings. He’s constantly eating or chasing women. Truman describes him as the “launch an offensive” type, and Carol Marcus admits he “chased [her] around a table once” (233). The implication is that Bill’s affairs aren’t always consensual: He’s a sexual predator, and he commits sexual assault.

Without excusing Bill’s predatory behavior, Benjamin gives his character depth and subverts his status as an archetypal toxic man. As Babe dies of lung cancer, Bill appears to Slim as “a broken man, crumbled by enough guilt to bring down the Empire State Building” (484). After Babe dies, Bill holds her hand for hours, reinforcing his role as a complex human with sympathetic emotions. Truman isn't there for Babe, but Bill is, and the juxtaposition gives Bill redeemable traits.

Slim Keith is one of the titular swans, and, after Babe, the member of the group with whom that Truman is closest. He calls her “Big Mama,” while she calls him “True Heart.” Fictionalized as Lady Ina Coolbirth in Truman’s scandalous short story, “La Côte Basque, 1965,” she is presented as his principal informant. Slim and Truman bond through gossip and provocative behavior. In an incident that finds its way into “La Côte Basque, 1965,” Slim and Truman call Babe on the phone and tell her about a time Slim had sex with an unnamed man while menstruating. In the scandalous short story, Truman intimates that the man was Bill Paley, Babe’s husband.

Though Babe is a loyal friend to Slim, Slim doesn’t repay her loyalty. Yet Slim’s behavior isn’t uncommon in the world of the swans. Almost everyone cheats, but, as the narrator explains, “[E]veryone stayed together. Everyone, for the most part, behaved, kept it quiet, out of their social circle” (231). Slim is a victim of a cheating husband and a disloyal friend as Pam takes her husband, Leland Hayward.

Pamela Churchill is a swan married to the son of former UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill. She serves as an antagonist in the novel, as her marriage to Slim’s husband makes her an adversary to this central character. Though Truman is friendly to her face, he has no problem trashing her behind her back, labeling her “a common tart dressed up in sheep’s clothing” (236). Nevertheless, Pamela displays willpower and agency, refusing to settle for a husband who treats her like a ”courtesan. ”

Ann Woodward isn’t a swan, and Benjamin doesn’t devote much space to her, but she’s a key character nonetheless, as the publication of “La Côte Basque, 1965” has dire consequences for her. Benjamin routinely alludes to her death by suicide before showing it in Chapter 18. Having married into money from humble beginnings, Ann accidentally shoots and kills her husband, Billy Woodward, after mistaking him for a burglar. Billy’s mother hushes up the incident, but Truman drags it back into the spotlight with his story. After reading the story, Ann dies by suicide, and her body is found with a copy of the story in her hand. Ann’s character parallels that of Babe: Though Babe is more successful in navigating high society, both are miserable, and Babe too considers suicide.