Bind WPF grid to non-observable collection

Question

Hello,
I have an object of MyClass, returned by business tier.
MyClass has a property of type List, say
class MyClass
public string Name;
public List<Whatever> Items;
I want to bind that collection of Items to grid in WPF screen with two-way updates using MVVM.
If I bind List<Whatever> via property, my grid does not reflect any changes to the underlying property b/c List does not support NotifyPropertyChanged.
I create a new Observable Collection from  List<Whatever>, bind it to grid and it works fine. But now I have 2 instances of the same data in memory, one as List<Whatever> and one as ObservableCollection<Whatever>.
Now, if I make changes to ObservableCollection via UI, it gets modified by framework, but I have to manually update List object with the same changes to keep them in sync, b/c after user is done with changes and wants to save modified MyClass, I need
to make sure MyClass.Items has all the user's changes.
My question is - isn't there a better way handle this situation than copying List to ObservableCollection and back?
Can I bind List property directly to Grid and still have two-way updates out of box? Any suggestions?
Thank you!
Isolda

Answer 1

Thanks for your replies. I did make public List<Whatever> Items into a property in my ViewModel, so that ViewModel looks like this
class MyViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged
    private MyClass _myClass = new MyClass();
    public string Name { get { return _myCLass.Name; } set{ _myClass.Name = value; }}
    public List<Whatever> Items { get { return _myClass.Items; } set { _myClass.Items = value;}}
XAML is this
<telerik:RadGridView ItemsSource="{Binding Items, Mode=TwoWay, UpdateSourceTrigger=PropertyChanged, NotifyOnSourceUpdated=True, NotifyOnTargetUpdated=True}" />
Whenever I add items, I call NotifyPropertyChange("Items").
Grid does not reflect changes to the List, unless I do something to the grid, like click to Sort the column.
The second comment about changes to Whatever objects in the list - "Whatever" is a DTO object, really don't want to add any code to it... I think I'll just stick to copying from List to Observable collection and back, although I'm concerned
about 2 times more memory.
If I misunderstood your replies pls let me know what I'm missing.
Thanks.
Isolda