Elements of Style

by Wendy Wasserstein

Book Overview

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author of the essay collectionShiksa Goddess("Utterly delicious"-Judith Thurman), a dazzling debut novel, a comedy about New York's urban gentry living... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1400042313
• ISBN13: 9781400042319
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
• Length: 307 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Escape

I thought this Audio book was terrific. First of all it is Wendy Wasserstein, who is brilliant. Second, it is read by Cynthia Nixon (Miranda from Sex & the City), who is an incredible actress and a pleasure to listen to. I found myself wanting to stay in the car to listen to more! Don't expect War and Peace. But if you want an escape and an audio book that will lift you up out of your life and into the lives of others this is for you.

Very fun! A great satire!

Wendy does it again! I won't repeat the story details here as you've heard them or can read the book description. But suffice it to say: Wendy is very, very smart. You know her, you love her, give this one a try!! It's worth it!

could not put down. must neglect household duties

I absolutely loved this book. A great read for the beach.

Deliciously satiric tour de force through New York's upper, upper class

Wasserstein's final novel embodies Style. The cover is simplistic and gorgeous (even though it is in the overused chick-lit pink). Her author photo defies the standard of airbrushed, Sex in the City glamour shots that usually appear on pink novels. Wasserstein appears genuine and accessible in her author photo. The novel itself has all the elements of social climbing, shopping, sex, and marital trouble that one would expect from pink chick-lit set in New York City, but Wasserstein has created something much greater than a fluffy novel. This is social commentary, a satire full of situational and dramatic irony. The Elements of Style is ostensibly about New York's urban elite. As the reader meets the dozen doctors, dermatologists, producers, businessmen, art dealers, and society wives of the novel, however, it becomes clear that all elite are not created equal. All are jockeying for position within society, and the world of personal yachts with half-million raw food New Year's Eve fetes is drastically different from that of the under-dressed celebrity pediatricians who have moral agendas to treat both the elite and the underprivileged. In fact, when planning the perfect dinner party, the planner must agonize over achieving the perfect mix of guests from different celebrity levels, social standings, and attractiveness. Then there's old money and new money, and there's money that has class and hires the right designers, while there's clueless money that hires the wrong, overdone designers. This is undoubtedly one of the funniest novels of the year. I couldn't help but groan when the over-achieving, desperate social climber planned a Turkish-English-Asian fusion party and served foie gras on mint pita with pomegranate molasses. Ugh. These characters are used to going to the front of the line, to the VIP room, so when a major industry magnate is diagnosed with prostrate cancer, he wants to bypass all the crap paperwork and blood samples and just get the doctor to give him some attention and solve his problems. He wants to manage his illness like any business deal, by throwing his foul-mouthed voice, his social standing, and his money at it. In the ultimate irony, after a "Ghetto Fabulous" themed movie premiere held in Brooklyn, a celebrity doctor nervously navigates the subway home, judging everyone around him, only to get mugged when he's seconds from home on "safe" Park Avenue. Wasserstein fills her prose with allusions to Yeats, to Gatsby and the green light, to the Age of Innocence and other literature, and to classic film. Those I could handle, but I thought she was trying a bit to hard to be "literary" when she had a father character in the book read classic Great Books by dead white males to his children every evening. I wanted to tell Wasserstein that she was a serious author, with a seriously good book, and didn't need to throw in one Great Book per chapter just to justify it. Bravo, Wendy! Your final novel is a memorable

Poignant

Knowing that author Wendy Wasserstein died, far too young, just months before ELEMENTS OF STYLE was published gave this novel a poignancy that would not exist if she had remained alive and healthy. Having been her fan since the long-ago days of her first play, UNCOMMON WOMEN AND OTHERS, I had every expectation of enjoying ELEMENTS. I was not disappointed. Consistent with Wasserstein's other work, in ELEMENTS, she once again exhibited the keen eye and ear of the observer. As with her other writing, she displayed extraordinary powers of insight, along with brilliant turns of phrase. Wasserstein remained fascinated with the social rhythms of the environment in which she placed herself, that of upper-class New York. Yet she always remained the outsider, the kid from Brooklyn, observing the swells, albeit with a piercing gaze. In STYLE, too, she is obsessed with how the very rich live. Though the name of the book is an allusion to the classic grammar primer, the design of the cover shows a modified (particularly by color) Hermes box. Thus, it is made obvious that the "style" to which her title refers is that of fashion and trend, not the one of careful writing. Wasserstein never wrote a romance novel, a plot which moved in linear fashion to "happily ever after," and she made no exception with this last effort. As always, her wit and her marvelous prose make ELEMENTS OF STYLE into an easy read, interesting and fun. Wendy Wasserstein definitely will be missed.