Piece of Work

July 24, 2006
Zigman (Animal Husbandry
) visits the popular chick lit landscape of Manhattan public relations, but with a less glamorous twist. The publicist is 36-year-old Julia Einstein, a Connecticut housewife who has been relishing her life as a stay-at-home mom to toddler son Leo. When her husband, Peter, loses his job, Julia is thrust back into the world she left behind. After calling on a savvy and successful friend for advice, Julia ends up at John Glom Public Relations, a "firm that handles desperate has-beens," where she must work with actress Mary Ford, billed as a "client, paying for the right to suck the life out of us." That Julia finds an antidote for Mary's dwindling fame is predictable, but the process generates its share of chuckles. Ford is ceaselessly cruel, but her vulnerability flickers tellingly beneath her veneer of icy disgust. Julia's portrait of motherhood is overly sentimental, and her references to Leo as "The Scoob" are doggedly cute. Julia's swift handling of potential PR disasters make for an amusing read, and the ending is just as happy as can be.

August 15, 2006
In her fourth novel, Zigman ("Animal Husbandry") tells the story of thirtysomething Julia Einstein, who has put her career as a publicist on hold to be a stay-at-home mom. Julia loves spending her days with her young son, even though she'd be the first to admit she's not exactly a domestic goddess. Everything changes when her husband, Peter, gets fired from his high-powered job and quickly proves to be much better at the household chores. Soon, Julia has no choice but to rejoin the work force. She takes a job working for a firm that represents -has beens, - and her first assignment is to relaunch a difficult, elderly, once-upon-a-time movie star, Mary Ford. Mary's comeback vehicle is a perfume that, everyone agrees, literally stinks. Nonetheless, Julia ends up orchestrating the star's comeback -and her own. This is a humorous and well-written look at what happens when the girl with the great single life gets the hot guy and becomes a mom. It's been a few years since we've seen a novel from this author, so there will be demand. For all public libraries." -Karen Core, Detroit P.L."

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2006
When Julie Einstein's husband, Peter, loses his job, she is forced to revive her career as a celebrity publicist, a position she happily walked away from in order to become a full-time mom. She's been away from the game for three years, just long enough to have tumbled from being the go-to whiz kid at an A-list firm to being the clueless gee-whiz kid at a shop handling only B-list has-beens. Julia lands the worst of the bunch in Mary Ford, a cantankerous former screen star whose launch of a malodorous perfume is supposed to revive a career that has been on life support for decades. As difficult as Mary is to manage, Julia's biggest challenges are coping with the separation from her son and jealousy of her stay-at-home husband, whose sudden mastery of domestic duties would indicate that he is channeling the spirits of June Cleaver and Julia Child. Vulnerable yet persistent, Zigman's plucky heroine succeeds through an engaging combination of warmth, wit, and wisdom.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)