Elements of Style by Wendy Wasserstein

Elements of Style Reviews

• 
  Nicholas

  It's sad to read this four years after Wasserstein's early death. (Apparently the book itself was published posthumously as well.) It's not necessarily moving, but Elements of Style is very funny. In my estimation there's only one character for whom the reader is supposed to care (Dr. Frankie Weissman, with whom the book begins and ends), which has clearly made it difficult for many reviewers here to care about the book as a whole. But if you take this as a skewering of the world of the Upper East Side in the early twenty-first century, then it's pretty great fun. Wasserstein is adept at documenting the ways in which old money is out and new money -- the flashier the better -- is in.
  
  While a number of the reviews at the time compared her to Austen (anyone who writes domestic fiction that is halfway honest about women's lot in life always gets compared to Austen), the more apt comparison is to Wharton, and not just because of the location. This is a book about women and social class and, like the Custom of the Country (my very fave Wharton), it's somewhat preposterous, but no less enjoyable or astute for being so.
• 
  Ashley Ward

  I have been reading a string of really bad books lately. So while this one was also really bad, at least it was marginally entertaining. I need to stop checking out books off the "recommended" shelf at my local library. Clearly, whoever picks those books and I have completely different tastes.
  
  Anyway, I was in Wendy Wassterstein's play called "The Heidi Chronicles" in college, and it is a story very near and dear to my heart. I loved its focus on a woman on the edge of the feminist revolution struggling, and failing, to have it all. So I was intrigued to read something else by her.
  
  Elements of Style focuses on a series of wealthy and universally detestable socialites living in NYC, and takes place much more recently, in the last decade. Each character is concerned almost exclusively with appearances and with maintaining their social status. I've read other books about this type of people (e.g. Bonfire of the Vanities) that were much more interesting and nuanced. This book, however was pure farce. It kept me reading, mostly because it was mildly comedic and because I wanted to see if any of the worthless-yet-priceless characters redeemed themselves in the end. The answer was no.
• 
  Ann

  I'm not entirely sure what the author's point was for this book. I guess maybe to show the depravity and shallowness of New York socialites? I'm not sure. It also dealt a lot with uncertainly of life in New York after 9/11. Maybe I should think of this as naturalism? I'll decide someday. This wasn't exactly chick-lit, but it seemed to be a close cousin, and it was entertaining on a long car ride. But I was still confused by many choices the characters made. Two characters randomly began an affair, seemingly without warning since they both came across as fairly happily married. Instead, they seemed to act out of boredom. In fact, that was the motivation for much of the action. I continue to be drawn to these kinds of books for road trips, but I don't think it would have stood up to a print reading.
• 
  Simon

  What a mess. Wendy trains the Big Guns on a sitting duck, i.e. the sort of women (the male characters only exist as appendages to their consorts with one exception) who staff the upper echelons of New York City "society", something that has been a pain in the ass to the rest of the country since Mrs. Astor's fabled 400. As if the shallow, narcissistic harpies that Wasserstein drags out aren't overkill enough, she sets them in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but even that doesn't really do it. So for good measure she invents a Starbucks explosion that kills 70, blowing up child ballerinas.. Child ballerinas, people! And still the socialites continue their meaningless lives of excess consumption and hypocritical charity galas. One might almost think they are retreating behind their money! (Large hint there as to what Wasserstein is really doing in this novel).
  
  Wendy's heroine is Dr. Francesca Weissman, who belongs tangentially to this world as a high-priced pediatrician, but who has a foot in Real Life because she donates time to the ethnic/African-American poor, thereby risking professional ostracism from the upper-class girls because their own children might get poor people cooties in the waiting room. But Francesca-Call-Me-Frankie is also a graduate of Spence and Princeton, so, y'know, she is basically smart. And Jewish, with earthy roots in the garment trade.
  
  Wasserstein, like Frankie, was an outsider. In real life, she orbited the kinds of folks she skewers in this play, lived a very comfortable Manhattan life, but, thanks to her gimlet eye, kept her distance. And even though Frankie flirts with the upper classes, she always goes back to those deserving poor. Because they are authentic. Or something. It's hard to tell, since we never actually get a chance to meet any of the poor people because Frankie is too busy panting after the rich bitches.
  
  And bitches they are. There are no real friendships depicted in Elements of Style. By the way, get the title? It is all Style uber alles, although Wasserstein confuses style with brand names, names scattered throughout the book like confetti. Henry James and Edith Wharton, who effortlessly did what Wasserstein tries to pull off here, don't spend a lot of time looking at the name tags on their characters' clothing. Or presumably separate the upper classes from the lower classes because money and good clothes make you shallow. Or something.
  
  But here's the deal. This is a rewritten Great Gatsby. Not a tribute, an actual swipe. Wasserstein cribs the character of Nick Carraway --- that's Frankie. And since it is hard to shake the feeling that Frankie is an avatar for Wendy, Wendy sees herself as Carraway, for those playing the home game. But there is also a Myrtle and a Tom and Daisy Buchanan. Indeed, Wasserstein paraphrases several of Gatsby's best lines, one of them so obviously that it made me stop sprawling in my reading chair and sit up in disbelief.
  
  We don't need The Great Gatsby Lite. I'd like to think that had Wassersein lived, she would have thought better of this novel. Because it is a lot closer to Jackie Collins than Scott Fitzgerald.
  
  Even if you like Wasserstein's other work, and I do, not recommended.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  separate the upper from the lower classes
• 
  Kim

  This book was awful. I'm not even quite sure why I finished it, but it did. It was so dumb, i can't even find anything even remotely intelligent to say about it. It was set in a post 9/11 NYC about this group of fashionistas, men and women. And the reason that I know it was about a post 9/11 society was because they said it EVERY OTHER PAGE!!!! Ugh!Actually, that's not quite accurate. It was almost like this author wrote the novel and then opened the pages and threw her finger down and said, "Here, here I will jot in something about it being post 9/11 and add some obscure comment about how unsafe we feel." It was totally unrealistic and then the ending was simply and utterly ridiculous. Don't waste your time, don't read this book.
• 
  Melissa

  Clearly written escapism, "Elements of Style" draws you in with well-crafted indulgent, ridiculous, and highly unlikeable characters more obsessed with their Upper East Side social status than anything else. Their lavish lifestyles are intriguing, if not unbelievable, and I was quickly intrigued by each character's personal story.
  
  I would have completely loved this book if not for some completely over-the-top plot points. Yes, rich people also have problems, but plaguing every character with seemingly unrealistic problems seemed to be driving the point a little too hard.
• 
  Heather

  This is decent chick lit. I'm sure the world expected more of Wendy Wasserstein, but I'm not going to judge her. It was snooty and insightful and entertaining. I liked it for a quick read!
• 
  Alice

  Very funny book about shallow members of New York society. Eventually some of the shallow characters get insights into their lives--and those are also quite shallow. The problem with the book is that shallow characters get predictable after awhile. I think I might have been fascinated by this if it were my introduction to New York socialites, but this has been done before.
  
  Wasserstein is better known for her plays--this is her first novel. She is best known for depicting middle-aged women who suffer from self-doubt. The women in the story were all in their early 40s, mostly reed thin, obsessed with shopping, spa treatments, getting their kids into the "right schools," being invited to the best dinner parties, blah blah. Also, they wanted to hang onto their rich husbands. Independence could be gained by having personal wealth, but it didn't guarantee confidence. Instead the women were neurotic and narcissistic--which isn't much of a revelation.
  
  The fear and sadness one year after 9/11 is well drawn. Everyone's emotions were raw, the security alerts were always going to orange and even red, people kept prescriptions for Cipro onhand in case they were exposed to anthrax. But most of these characters didn't help during the disaster--they were just concerned with getting out of town. They did hold charity events to raise money afterward, of course.
  
  There is a single, 40sh, Jewish pediatrician who is drawn into the elite social circle for a brief time who has more depth to her character, but her character arc is predictable--when you hang out with shallow people, and you're not one of them (you're Jewish, you're not rich, you're too serious about life), you'll eventually get hurt.
  
  I was sorry to learn that the author died, because I think she would have grown over time.
• 
  sendann

  I went into this expecting a delightful and undemanding girlie read, and I got it, but this is not a standard guilty pleasure lady book, like that one I read a few months ago about the ladies in hollywood and their divorces - I've forgotten the name but I think I reviewed it. This is the first thing I've read by Wendy Wasserstein, and I've learned just a little bit about her from other reviewers, who on the whole found this book to be kind of superficial and non-awesome. Contrarily, I have found myself rather affected by this story. The setting is shiney and glitzy early aughts nyc, but the relationships, moreso than the individual characters, were very well drawn and spoke a lot of truth about the complicated, unique nature of all love relationships.
  
  Even though we are not all socialites, I wonder if some of us are more like these 'ladies who lunch' than we would have been fifteen years ago, because of social media. The obsession with appearance and reputation and social value would have seemed very trite and hard to relate to me in an earlier time, I think, but I kept finding myself relating to these characters and their flashy society. Of course my flashy society takes place primarily on Facebook, but still.
  
  This is the best book of its color I have read in recent memory. Highly recommended for social novel lovers, girlie readers, and satc fans, insomuch as those things every appear in isolation :-).
  
  love
  ann
• 
  Christie

  First off, there will be spoilers so if you want to read this book and don't like to know anything before you read it (like me) then don't read on!
  
  What was this? I love Wendy Wasserstein as a playwright. I couldn't wait to read this book! I thought that it would be a witty satire on New York's "finest" (not the firefighters, the Upper East Siders) after 9/11. I was sorely mistaken.
  
  The first few chapters are delightful and engaging, but soon, you long for the book to go somewhere... 307 pages later you shut the book realizing that it never did!
  
  The political agenda being pushed was nauseating. I daresay it bordered on propaganda!
  
  I liked not one character in this entire book- not one. At the beginning I thought that this was so that Ms Wasserstein would make a point later... SHE NEVER DID.
  
  You can tell Wendy was an excellent playwright from the vivid descriptions of scene. It was written very visually.
  
  I hate to say it, but this book's critical acclaim comes only from Ms Wasserstein's previous success as a playwright and her untimely death. Had she lived she would have discovered that she most certainly wasn't a novelist and should have spent her time writing what she is truly genious at- plays.
• 
  Bookmarks Magazine

  Critics felt traitorous calling Wendy Wasserstein's debut novel, published so soon after her death, a bit of a disappointment, but many agreed that what works so well on stage (the Pulitzer Prize? and Tony Award?winning play
  The Heidi Chronicles) does not translate well to prose. Some critics thought the novel possessed the verve and "charmingly neurotic" heroine (USA Today)__a Wendy stand-in__of her best-known work and praised Wasserstein's keen eye for social satire. Others called Elements of Style a so-so effort, filled with clich_
• 
  George Ilsley

  Every now and then I read a book and then wonder why on earth I did such a thing. Perhaps such books are palate cleansers but they leave a kind of sticky residue. I did not understand any of these characters, especially what Samantha saw in Barry. Labelled this humour and satire because otherwise it is not anything at all. Sorry, poor dead author. I can only assume you did not really have the chance to finish this.
• 
  Taryn

  I think the characters were all meant to be despised, but I'm still not sure that's what the author wanted to have happen. Maybe she wanted them to seem real by all of their flaws, but they just came off as selfish, snobby, and immoral. I kept waiting for a redeeming factor and it never really came.
• 
  Jessica

  Loved it! Light and delightful at first, but Wasserstein's insights into human nature are quietly observed. I deeply admire her ability to show multiple aspects of her characters, so that in varying turns I felt compelled, repulsed, and compassionate for the same character.
• 
  Lindsay

  I like to read these kind of "non-thinking" books every once in a while, but this one was just plain silly - characters were over-the-top and the story was really predictable.
• 
  Annie ⚜️

  I forgot how crazy we went after 9/11. We need more Wassersteins. Many didn't like the characters but, yes, such as in life a-holes often come out of things unscathed and life isn't fair.
• 
  Stefanie

  There is no plot here, just a cast of the outrageously rich doing outrageously rich people things. I might have given it three stars if Samantha hadn't been so fucked up on drugs that she accidentally pushed Judy into a tree and killed her, suddenly turning this boring beach read into a murder mystery that won't be solved by any of the cast. And if you're going to name your mediocre fiction novel after Strunk and White's book, at least make an effort to include it as more than a childhood prop of a minor character. But I guess when you read the first chapter of a book and put it down for three entire weeks without caring about it, you probably shouldn't finish that book in the first place.
• 
  Kelly Parker

  Total escape reading about lifestyles of the rich and ridiculous.
  Socialites in Manhattan vie to outdo each other in insipid fashion. How in the hell did “socialite” ever get to become a real thing anyway?
  Few of the characters are very likable and almost nobody is better off from the beginning of the story to the end. The author attempted to add a little gravity to the very fluffy storylines but, alas, not very successfully.
• 
  Bernadette

  This was fun! This was an audiobook. I enjoyed it. Very much about the Who’s who, in this part of The City. Who’s married to whom, who they know, what they do all day and where their kids go to school.
  Honestly, I laughed out loud a few times. It did have mention of 911, and how “New Yorkers” in this group of people were affected. Overall, it was fun, good read.
  ✨Good Beach read! 👍🏻
• 
  Rebecca

  Comedy of manners set among asshole socialites in late 2001 New York City. Loved some of the biting satire, but it nearly develops heart towards the end and then shies away. I suppose "awful rich people stay awful" is a realistic turn of events, but it felt a bit like the author lost her nerve. Whether that's by starting to make characters learn or not letting them complete that, I'm not sure.
• 
  Ryan S

  Mix Sex in the City, Desperate Housewives, and the Real Housewives of (select a city), and you have this book. Wealthy entitled people doing what wealthy entitled people do... Whatever they want because money solves most people's problems right? Entertaining, but not particularly significant.
• 
  Exlibris Library

  The most interesting and boredom-free insight into New York's high class reality after 9/11. Great demonstration of materialistic misery, unavoidable loneliness in the world of reach, powerful and vane.
• 
  Monica

  I enjoy Wendy Wasserstein’s writing. It’s odd to characterize a post-9/11 novel as a fun, gossipy romp, but that really is what this novel is. There are definite nods to Edith Wharton throughout, though it doesn’t reach that territory—it’s more like a good Carrie Fisher novel.
• 
  Christine Comito

  really fun story about really rich socialites in Manhattan after 9/11
• 
  retronerd Steinkuehler

  Yarda yada ya. Blah blah blah... DNF. Went no where fast....
• 
  Kristina Howard

  Fun and light, but didn't love the ending.