Cheap Diamonds

Cheap Diamonds is a semi-autobiographical work of fiction written by Norris Church Mailer and published in 2008. Norris Church Mailer, born Barbara Jean Davis and raised in Atkins (Pope County), became an artist, actress, and author after moving to New York City to be with renowned writer Norman Mailer following their brief chance meeting in Arkansas at an event in Russellville (Pope County). She eventually married Mailer after finding work in New York as a model through the prestigious Wilhelmina agency. She died in 2010.

Like its predecessor Windchill Summer, a semi-autobiographical novel that she published in 2001, the sequel Cheap Diamonds draws on Mailer’s early life in Arkansas and follows her as she moves to New York.

In interviews, Mailer stated that she took the name of her main character, “Cherry,” from the name of a girl she knew growing up in Arkansas. Cheap Diamonds describes the journey of the lead character, Cherry Marshall (based on Mailer herself), from the fictional small town of Sweet Valley, Arkansas, where she was born and raised, to the unfamiliar world of New York City.

Cherry becomes obsessed with the vision of getting a job at a New York modeling agency owned by a woman who was formerly from Sweet Valley but went on to re-invent herself. Finding the means to leave home, Cherry convinces herself that “Arkansas girls didn’t necessarily have to stay down on the farm. That’s why God invented cheekbones and airplanes.”

The plotline of Cheap Diamonds portrays Cherry’s struggle to become a top model while facing rejection at every turn. She encounters sleazy characters who aim to take advantage of her naiveté, as well as those who are kind but approach her as they would an alien life form (“So—Arkansas, huh. I see you’re wearing shoes.”) Over the course of the book, Cherry discovers what a young woman alone in the big city has to do in order to get to the top and stay there.

Along with the owner of the modeling agency, Cherry encounters other fictional former Arkansans in the Big Apple. One is a young man who was originally from her hometown. He had given his pregnant girlfriend a cheap diamond engagement ring before skipping town, changing his name, and becoming an underwear model. To Cherry, the tawdry underside of the glitzy world of New York models is like a cheap diamond, glittery to the untrained eye but not actual quality.

Real-life Arkansas references in the book include writer and magazine editor Helen Gurley Brown, originally from Green Forest (Carroll County); the Log Cabin Democrat, a newspaper in Conway (Faulkner County); and the song “A Little Girl from Little Rock.”

The fictitious Cherry Marshall also crosses paths with real people in New York such as celebrity artist Andy Warhol and his entourage. All the while, she is transforming herself from gawky to glamorous without losing the wholesomeness and vulnerability that make her an appealing character.

Cheap Diamonds attracted positive reviews, including blurbs from bestselling authors Elizabeth Berg and Adriana Trigiani. One of the most glowing came from renowned historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, in which Goodwin praises Mailer’s “vibrantly drawn characters,” “riveting plot,” and “brilliantly woven stories.” Goodwin particularly applauds “the richly detailed rendering of the ever-fascinating world of high fashion,” stating that the book is “a complete triumph—a masterly and entertaining work.”

Reviewers stated that it was not necessary to be familiar with Windchill Summer before reading Cheap Diamonds in order to follow the story of Cherry Marshall, but reading the first book was often suggested.

In 2011, Mailer’s A Ticket to the Circus: A Memoir. It covers much of the same ground as the novels Windchill Summer and Cheap Diamonds, but in a nonfiction format.

For additional information:
Berger, Joseph. “Norris Church Mailer, Artist and Ally, Dies at 61.” New York Times, November 21, 2010. https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/books/22mailer.html (accessed November 20, 2024).

Brantley, Max. “Norris Church Mailer Dies at 61.” Arkansas Times, November 22, 2010. https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2010/11/22/norris-church-mailer-dies-at-61  (accessed November 20, 2024).

“Cheap Diamonds—Norris Church Mailer.” Publishers Weekly. https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781400062607 (accessed November 20, 2024).

Mailer, Norris Church. Cheap Diamonds: A Novel. New York: Ballantine Books, 2008.

———. A Ticket to the Circus: A Memoir. New York: Random House, 2011.

———. Windchill Summer: A Novel. New York: Ballantine Books, 2001.

Nancy Hendricks
Garland County Historical Society