Smiles and Chukkers and Other Vanities

Barbara Robertson is the author of Wilfrid Laurier: The Great
Conciliator and co-author of The Well-Filled Cupboard.

Kildare Dobbs begins this collection of essays by focusing on the rich,
a minority group that Canadians, egalitarian in theory, view with mixed
feelings—namely—admiration and envy. But Dobbs is far from
providing, or intending to provide, an update to Porter’s The Vertical
Mosaic, and if there is any uniting theme to this varied, but decidedly
light, collection of essays, it is the pursuit of pleasure. The rich
have the means to pursue it more ardently, and in the case of horse
racing and polo, money is a definite help, even a necessity. Still, if
being rich involves living in Palm Beach, “a place in God’s waiting
room,” or worse still, Palm Springs, even for the winter, one can see
that money isn’t everything.

The greatest asset in the capture of pleasure is a discriminating
palate, and not just for food, though good food is an important aspect.
It is not entirely clear how one develops this—by going to “the
[right] schools,” taking the “Rhodes to success,” or securing a
snowflake, “the almost invisible, almost unknown, all-Canadian
honour.” It is clear that Dobbs has it, particularly when he reaches
Europe and enjoys “a house in Piedmont” as well as “eating in
Lyons.”

Dobbs’s greatest talent is for the savoring of pleasures, and he
shares it with us in these essays, uneven though they are in interest.
His style is graceful, his touch so relentlessly light that sometimes
one longs for fewer soufflés and more meat and potatoes. Best not read
in a single sitting.