Shiksa Goddess

April 23, 2001
Noted playwright Wasserstein offers up 35 essays, most of which have appeared over the years in such publications as the New Yorker, Harper's Bazaar, Allure
and the New York Times Magazine.
Now in her late 40s, the humorist tackles topics such as dieting, the theater, her late cat, Manhattan real estate and Thanksgiving. She also trains her eye on public figures such as Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bette Midler and Jamie Lee Curtis. The book falls prey, however, to the usual dangers of such collections: repetition (The Heidi Chronicles,
for which she won the Pulitzer Prize in 1988, is mentioned countless times) and staleness (e.g., the Clinton-Dole debates are one essay's backdrop, and an observation that Brad Pitt and Gwyneth Paltrow "really, really love each other" undermines the opening of another). Here, we meet a single woman who, despite the trappings of success and fame, is dealing with pedestrian issues and anxieties. While these brief anecdotes tap familiar humor wells and sometimes wax sentimental, readers are duly rewarded by the final two longer essays: one deals with the breast cancer of Wasserstein's sister and the other with Wasserstein's pregnancy at age 48. Both pieces are moving, written with notable humor and heartbreaking poignancy, as when she describes her premature newborn daughter, just out of intensive care: "Lucy Jane was almost weightless. Her tiny legs dangled like a doll's. Her diaper was the size of a cigarette pack. I opened my sweater and put her inside. Her face was smaller than an apple." Wasserstein, once described as a Neil Simon for the feminist set, may at times alienate male readers, not through bashing (the men who appear are essentially likable) but rather through their exclusion from the emotional lens. Wasserstein writes for a certain audience. And for the most part, they should not be disappointed. Agents, Lynn Nesbit and Eric Simonoff. (May 15) Forecast: Fans of Wasserstein's plays will enjoy these glimpses into her private musings and personal life. Moreover, with an eight-city author tour and an appearance on NBC's
Today show on May 8, she will surely broaden her appeal, ensuring healthy sales of the 25,000-copy projected first printing.

May 1, 2001
The first of these occasional pieces by playwright Wasserstein is the silly " New "Yorker essay "Shiksa Goddess," in which the Jewish writer ever so gently sends up prominent gentiles, such as Madeline Albright and Hillary Rodham Clinton, who publicly announced they had Jewish ancestors. A number of other silly essays succeed it, many of them also thumbsuckers from the " New Yorker," the " New York Times Magazine," or women's magazines. Every once in a while Wasserstein crafts a piece worthy of the woman who wrote " The Heidi Chronicles" and " The "Sisters Rosensweig. Reminiscences of her battles with infertility, the premature birth of her baby, and the untimely death of her oldest sister are riveting and sometimes searing. Observations about the dismal state of theater in America and the difficulty of making a living as a playwright are sharp and pungent. Still, Wasserstein or her editor should have done some weeding before putting the collection to bed.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)