Elements of Style

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).

January 1, 2007
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wasserstein's only novel is witty, entertaining, cutting, and clever, with compelling social criticism. Taking place in post-9/11 New York City, this is a satiric tale of good vs. superficial, about the lives, dealings, and deception of New York's Upper East Side socialites. From both old money and nouveau riche, their existence seems to center around designer labels, chic shoes, fundraising, interior designers, and "hot" restaurants and resorts. Born in Queens, Frankie Weissman, the female protagonist, is an Ivy League Fifth Avenue doctor with a stern social conscience who lives modestly. She works diligently for a living treating the children of her social peers as well as the disadvantaged in East Harlem. She is lonely, frumpy, single, funny, and insightful. Throughout the story, the characters' lives change, danger imposes, crisis happens, couples swap partners, and later reconcile. The critical message here is that social power, style, and money do not ultimately protect anyone. Wasserstein was wonderfully funny, talented, and much-admired; she died last year of lymphoma at the age of 55. Read by Kathe Mazur, "Elements of Style" is an entertaining chick-lit novel filled with wit, humor, and sadness. Recommended for popular fiction collections.Carol Stern, Glen Cove P.L., NY

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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.

January 15, 2007
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Wasserstein's only novel is witty, entertaining, cutting, and clever, with compelling social criticism. Taking place in post-9/11 New York City, this is a satiric tale of good vs. superficial, about the lives, dealings, and deception of New York's Upper East Side socialites. From both old money and nouveau riche, their existence seems to center around designer labels, chic shoes, fundraising, interior designers, and "hot" restaurants and resorts. Born in Queens, Frankie Weissman, the female protagonist, is an Ivy League Fifth Avenue doctor with a stern social conscience who lives modestly. She works diligently for a living treating the children of her social peers as well as the disadvantaged in East Harlem. She is lonely, frumpy, single, funny, and insightful. Throughout the story, the characters' lives change, danger imposes, crisis happens, couples swap partners, and later reconcile. The critical message here is that social power, style, and money do not ultimately protect anyone. Wasserstein was wonderfully funny, talented, and much-admired; she died last year of lymphoma at the age of 55. Read by Kathe Mazur, Elements of Style is an entertaining chick-lit novel filled with wit, humor, and sadness. Recommended for popular fiction collections.Carol Stern, Glen Cove P.L., NY

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.