From Publishers Weekly
Swapping journalism for fiction, Jacobs (The Art of Haute Couture) laces a gossipy guilty pleasure with feeling and sophisticated wit. Her cosmopolitan protagonists cat fight, take tea and climb professional ladders in New York City's most stylish neighborhoods. Elegant Iris Biddle, once married into an old money Mayflower family, is now divorced and 40. Romantically, she refuses to settle for second best, but is too busy with her career as a designer of stylish lampshades to concentrate on husband hunting. Lana Burton, 34, is a theater critic who writes for a respected dance journal, then lands a plum assignment for Vanity Fair. She has a knack for estranging her slightly older female colleagues, but is able to hold on to Sam, her commitment-phobic boyfriend of two years. The ambitious Manhattanites' concerns sacrificing shopping sprees at Bergdorf's in favor of paying bills, gaining prestige in their respective fields are similar, though they don't meet until the end (they share equal star time in alternating chapters). Jacobs effectively avoids clich‚ by treating Iris and Lana with gravity and respect, making them dedicated and focused on their careers. She also paces the novel quite well and turns an interesting phrase now and again ("wrinkled widows with vinegar voices"). In-the-know followers of Jacobs will indulge themselves, as will the nonurbanite who wants to catch a glimpse into these women's rarified worlds.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Jacobs, a
Vanity Fair editor and dance critic with Chicago roots, no doubt drew on elements of her own experiences to create Lana Burton and Iris Biddle, this first novel's two main characters. Burton is a 35-year-old writer with a passion for theater and dance, originally from suburban Chicago, as is 40-year-old Iris, a sophisticated and reserved maker of silk lampshades. The link between them is Deena, the real-estate broker who found their Manhattan apartments and befriended both. The novel alternates between the lives of these two characters. Lana begins to make a name for herself as an arts writer, while worrying that her boyfriend is unwilling to commit. Also worried that she will always be alone, Iris concentrates on finding New Yorkers willing to spend $3,000 on a lampshade. In a way that is neither melodramatic nor patronizing. Jacobs explores the fears and loneliness of women past the age at which society expects them to be married. Quiet prose and well-developed characters distinguish this insightful look at the lives of today's career woman.
Beth WarrellCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
