Covergirl

July 3, 2006
Modern Renaissance woman Moynihan's first novel (after story collection Yoga Hotel), confusingly labeled as "reality fiction," follows international party girl Veronica Ferris, who must decide whether she will "join the ranks of commoners and go nine to five, or remain on extended vacation." She burns out on her gossip column-worthy lifestyle-nightly clubs, dates with a rock star-and returns to Asia where she spent her "magical childhood" as a diplomat's daughter. She begins volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal, only to become disillusioned by the artificiality of American altruism in the third world. Eventually, karma rewards Veronica's good intentions and she ends up combining her two loves: partying and helping people, as director of the philanthropic trust of her father's estate, throwing parties for charity. Though Moynihan's novel is filled with exotic and incongruous settings-New York nightclubs and Buddhist temples, fashion photo shoots and Tibetan orphanages-the heroine's self-righteous streak spoils the story's potential charm.