I would recommend this to anyone. Excellent summer reading.

The movie followed the book to the t. An unusual accomplishment. Fun read.

How can you not like this book? Images of Rosalind Russell kept floating through my head ... as well as resolutions to live a less ordinary life just as soon as humanly possible.

A mulher do século indeed. Ia dar quatro estrelas para esse livro, mas resolvi dar cinco porque a tia Mame é exatamente a mulher que eu gostaria de ser se eu fosse milionária (talvez com uma maior restribuição de renda como a Dolly Parton). Sei que ela foi vivida no cinema pelas grandes Rosalind Russell e Lucille Ball e nos próximos dias as estarei assistindo, mesmo assim creio que as melhores partes do livro de Dennis não devem ter visto a luz do dia no cinema por questões de moralismo vigente, mas a tia Mame é mesmo maravilhosa e esse livro é uma pérola esquecida que deveria mesmo ser revisitada.

2010 bookcrossing journal:

I had never heard of this book before, so I kind of came into it a bit blind. It's set before the second world war, and it's about a guy, also called Patrick Dennis, and his aunt, Mame. They first meet in New York when he is 10 years old and his father has died. Now an orphan, his father had requested that Patrick go into Mame's custody, even though she is a bit mad, although the boy is still to be raised conservatively. So the book is about Patrick growing up, all the way till he's about 40 or something, and the wacky misadventures he gets drawn into because of his eccentric aunt.

It's quite an entertaining book, and actually sometimes quite a biting commentary on the biogtry of this "aristocratic" American upper class and materialistic values - of which Mame isn't really of the same mindset. She sometimes comes across as rather thoughtless and scatterbrained, but she helps Patrick through life rather well, just as he helps her at points in her life. As entertaining as she is, I could imagine people like that could get rather exhausting and demanding after a while.

I've known women like Mame all my life, and I hate them all. The writing itself is passable yet tedious.

Started out great, but I felt like it was more of the same all the way through and at some point started to feel really bored with the book.

A cute, campy read.

After decades of worshipping Rosalind Russell in the film adaptation of this book, I was startled to discover that the book did not entertain me as I had assumed it would.

There is some very witty writing, but in the end, everything was too over the top for me. Even the movie borders on the ridiculous, but it never fully tipped over. The Agnes Gooch in Maine chapter made me want to claw out my own eyes.

The film watered down (somewhat) the offensive anti-Semitism, sexism, and other "of the era" writing, which is so pronounced in the book.

After assuming for years that this would be a five-star read for me, it breaks my heart to give three stars (and I may be feeling a tad generous due to nostalgia).