Knopf, Jan 2003, 22.00, 320 pp.
ISBN: 0375411798
In 1980s Manhattan, Jolie magazine editorial assistant Sandra Berlin outwardly enjoys the party lifestyle of a swinging single. She especially enjoys the party scene secured in the accompaniment of her best friend Paul Romano, who happens to be gay. However, secretly Sandra wants to escape the stigma of her atrocious job at a meaningless fashion rag to move to suburbia with a husband and the 2.5 children.
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Sandra believes her marital prayers have been answered when her longtime boyfriend Bucky Ross (of Betsy fame) proposes. However, her idyllic moment in either Westchester, Putnam, across the Hudson, or out in Long Island ends when she learns Bucky has two other fiancées.
This chick lit tale is a strong story when it irreverently focuses on 1980s singles life in Manhattan by providing readers with an amusing yet anxiety-laden tale. When the novel switches gear to an AIDS subplot, it loses momentum as it drags the story line away from the minor woes that Sandra turns into Mount Everest into a life threatening crisis. Still most fans of this literary style will enjoy late twentieth century New York before the 9/11 tragedies.
Harriet Klausner
The review of this Book prepared by Harriet Klausner
