Elements of Style

January 16, 2006
In the classic primer that Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Wasserstein (The Heidi Chronicles
) names her dishy first novel after, Strunk & White note, "Style not only reveals the spirit of the man but reveals his identity." Wasserstein tries to apply that aphorism to Manhattan's wealthy elite shortly after 9/11. Upper East Side pediatrician Francesca "Frankie" Weissman doesn't have quite as much disposable income as the Manolo moms and Bonpoint babies that frequent her office. She's drawn into the city's circles of old and new money, including those of blue-blooded Samantha Acton; reinvented Californian Judy Tremont; and self-made film mogul Barry Santorini, son of a South Philly cobbler. As mothers stockpile Cipro and gas masks after 9/11, none of them stops believing that "life could be controlled if only you had the right resources." As the question of how, when and with whom Frankie will couple narrows, the novel hits a disconcerting number of false notes: points of view shift with jarring speed, a bathetic account of a suicide bombing rankles and it is hard to care much about characters who utter such lines as "That's love, babe. You always have to give 200 percent." But Wasserstein gets the trappings and tribulations (of friendship and of romance) right, making her depiction of the rich and fab trying to connect with one another witty and entertaining.

July 10, 2006
Nixon (Sex and the City
) crafts tones and speech patterns for Wasserstein's Upper East Side rich and famous that simultaneously satirize and humanize them. She manages to individualize characters who are, finally, too stereotypic to hold up. Their egotism grows annoying, their race and class attitudes predictable, their divorces and mate swaps dreary. It's difficult to know whether to fault the author or the abridger, though one has no sense of missing sections or passages. All that said, this is Wendy Wasserstein writing. From the double entendre of the title—literary craft vs. fashion and social climbing—we enjoy the irony, humor and moral outrage that move like undertow. Janet Maslin aptly described the book as "chick lit with a chill and a pedigree," and Nixon makes the most of the best of Wasserstein's writing. Wasserstein's plays are superb; her first (and, sadly, only) novel, while entertaining, falls short. With her wicked wit, emotional and sociological insight, and perfect ear for dialogue, she would surely have written many more marvelous plays and, no doubt, some wonderful novels. What a loss! Simultaneous release with the Knopf hardcover (Reviews, Jan. 16).

March 1, 2006
In the wake of 9/11, New York City -s A-list socialites struggle to find meaning in their lives even while they continue to worry over what to serve at their dinner parties. The colorful cast of characters includes style-setting Samantha, who suffers from self-esteem issues; Judy, a carb-abstaining gossip, whose social machinations make up a full-time job; and Clarice, who lists among her accomplishments the keeping of a steady supply of her husband -s favorite English muffins at each of their four homes. The more narcissistic characters are balanced by Frankie Weissman, the down-to-earth pediatrician who treats the children of the rich and famous but is not affected by their excessive lifestyles. Pulitzer Prize -winning playwright Wasserstein ("The Heidi Chronicles", who died just before the publication of this first novel, has done a good job of simultaneously poking fun at high society and evoking the anxiety of maintaining a perfect image, capturing a world that is at once fascinating, appalling, and amusing. Chock-full of shopping, mansions, spa treatments, and fine dining, it is a sensuous read, but Wasserstein -s ironic perspective saves it from being merely decadent. Recommended for popular fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ"12/05.]" -Joy Humphrey, Pepperdine Univ. Law Lib., Malibu, CA"

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2006
Adult/High School-Young women, in particular, will revel in this tongue-in-cheek, thoroughly satirical depiction of post-9/11 New York society. Wasserstein's skill as a playwright is evident through the witty dialogue and farcical situations she used to create her deeply shallow, largely revolting characters. Inane values, a terrorist bombing, an accidental death, and a debilitating illness compose the dark elements of the novel, initially obscured by the author's light writing style. Our mutual vulnerability to these situations, she reminds readers, is beyond what money, power, and beauty can control. Society pediatrician Frankie Weissman, a compassionate and selfless individual, provides the perfect foil for the thoroughly unlikable primary characters. Frankie is Wasserstein's hero. Perhaps she is Wasserstein herself. This novel is about recognizing what is and who are worth loving."Claudia C. Holland, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA"

Copyright 2006 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2006
Wasserstein, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and essayist, gives fiction a go in a glitzy post-9/11 satire about Manhattan's narcissistic, moneyed, aggressively thin, and obsessively fashionable elite. Thanks to her dramatist's skills, her debut novel is brisk and peppered with amusing dialogue, but this territory is so heavily trod that it's difficult to get anything fresh to bloom. Wasserstein's cataloging of the latest in plastic surgery, cuisine, couture, nannies, private schools, and vacation spots is more dunning than cutting. Thankfully, her characters have some complexity. The ambitious, acquisitive, glossy, and gossipy women are perversely engaging, and the one with a brain, a pediatrician whose father is losing his battle with Alzheimer's, is even admirable. Wasserstein also concocts some intriguing endangered marriages. Potentially an update of Tom Wolfe's savaging of the rich and insular, " The Bonfire of the Vanities" (1987), Wasserstein's parody loses its zing, and the references to terrorism and the Iraq War are irritatingly superficial. However, readers looking for an arch and sexy high--society fantasy with edge will be perfectly satisfied with this tart tale of excess and retribution in the city.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)