Women about Town

by Laura Jacobs

Book Overview

Iris Biddle would like to experience the Perfect Day. She'd like to wake up one morning with all errands done and deadlines met, her posh custom-lampshade business for once ahead of schedule-and have absolutely nothing to regret or worry about. Forty years old and determined to take it gracefully, Iris is experiencing the fallout from her painful divorce. Lana Burton would like her boyfriend of two years to commit. At thirty-four, Lana is an eager...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670030880
• ISBN13: 9780670030880
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

One that sneeks up on you.

This is not a loud book and perhaps that is why some other reviews didn't care for it. I was taken completely by suprise and delight as I was expecting a light read in the chick-lit vein and instead got a tight little story of choosing a life of art vs commerce. How those choices effect what must give up and what is gained. It is all the small decisions one makes in the course of a day and most especally how in the quiet one can hear ones own voice in order to make the big choices. As I was recommened it to one friend I descibed it as "a real book", not that it is a tome, I read it in a few hours and wished it wouldn't end. Loved the dialogue and and how the author conveys in a few words such as "flight or nest" all the pathos of having to choose one over the other. This book is full of gems like that. Perhaps if the reader who "skips over entire paragraphs" had taken time to read it in its entirety she would have gotten more out of it. I enjoyed both the main characters and identifed with both but, loved Iris and thought her brillant. To some she was elitist, to me she is a true notch above and rather than be "fashionable" remains true to herself. I wish she were real, I would dearly love to call her a friend.

The City, Two Women, And Art -- Wonderfully

Six months after reading this novel I still think of prim, careful Iris and her silk-covered lampshades. The novel is quiet and contained, and does something that few others do: portray the way that women interact with one another -- sometimes nicely, sometimes meanly -- in a balanced and sympathetic way. Anyone who appreciates Jane Austen's Elizabeth and Elanor or felt that a piece of the sad but surviving Mirabelle from Steve Martin's Shopgirl was inside of them would also enjoy this book.

Stunningly stylish

It's like reading a book dipped in Dove chocolate on a carefree summer day. Enormously fun to read and easily digestible characters dealing with issues common to the modern day career gal. Very short-- only about 200 pages but each word is meaningful and conveys descriptive images and emotions with a distinctive feminine perspective.

Interesting and likable

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. It doesn't have much of a plot, more of a glimpse into the lives of the main characters. But Iris and Lana are very likable. I disagree with the review comparing it to Sex In The City. These women are much classier than that. This book left me wanting to read more about them. I will be on the look out for any new books by Ms. Jacobs.

Intelligent novel about professional women in NYC

This smart and witty novel hits the nail in the head when it comes to New York women's preoccupation with having a successful career. Iris Biddle and Lana Burton have one thing in common: ambition. The two Manhattanites are too caught up in their careers to make room for relationships. Especially Iris who, having experienced a painful divorce, is neither desperate nor inclined to find Soul Mate Number Two. And climbing the corporate ladder is the only thing in Lana's agenda. A theater critic that lands a job in Vanity Fair, she might as well say goodbye to love.Women About Town is an intelligent novel about the pitfalls of being a career woman in Manhattan. New York is the perfect backdrop for this novel. This is certainly an excellent read and I highly recommend it.