Admissions [Paperback]

Nancy Lieberman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 6, 2005

This sharply observed and bitingly funny novel exposes the over-the-top absurdity of New York City`s elite private school admissions circus. For Manhattan's most affluent parents, the Tuesday after Labor Day marks the beginning of the city's most competitive and vicious blood sport: the start of the private school admissions process. But for Helen Drager, mother of Zoe, it shouldn't be such an ordeal. After all, Helen's best friend Sara is an admissions officer at Zoe's current K-8. But Sara's position becomes precarious, and Helen soon finds herself drawn ever deeper into the mounting lunacy generated by the fierce competition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"ADMISSIONS is sharp, funny, and nicely nasty. -- JAY MULVANEY, author of Essentially Lilly: A Guide to Colorful Entertaining and Diana & Jackie

ADMISSIONS is fun [and] hilarious . . . It'll get you packing for the suburbs and public schools -- the right public schools." -- JUDY BLUME, author of Summer Sisters

Beware, nobody -- accepted or rejected -- from Manhattan's private school scene escapes harsh grading. -- VICTORIA GOLDMAN, co-author of The Manhattan Family Guide to Private Schools and Selective Public Schools --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

I was born in Elizabeth New Jersey in 1955. In 1964 my family made a radical decision to relocate to Kailua Hawaii where I went to school barefoot, took hula lessons and learned to play the ukulele. In 1969 we moved again to Los Altos California, which at that time was the verdant apricot capital of the United States. Valley. I attended Los Altos High School in the early 1970's, a time when public schools in California had a reputation for excellence and few parents sent their children to private school. I went on to Vassar College, which had recently turned coed, and spent my junior year abroad in Florence Italy where I became conversant in Italian and enamored by Renaissance painting. When I graduated from college in 1977 I moved to New York City, where I lived ever since, and began a career in the arts. In 1983, I naively started a business. My new business partner and I opened Lieberman and Saul Gallery in Soho and specialized in photography. We were lucky in that we were early comers to a field that was to explode over the next decade and we were able to make a name for ourselves. I left the business in 1991 after my daughter was born, having made the difficult decision to devote more time to being a mother. Over the next ten years I wore various hats in the art photography world, including that of curator, appraiser and auction house specialist. After navigating my way through the complexities of the admissions process, my daughter was admitted to a New York City private school. No sooner had we settled in than I was called upon to head up the annual fund-raising auction, chair the Parent's Association and join the Board of Trustees. These experiences opened my eyes to a world I had never known existed-the world of privileged, neurotic New York parents obsessed with their children's education. I've always been a voracious reader and, like many, often found myself thinking that, one day, I would love to write a novel. After my daughter was admitted to school and the dreaded process was behind me, I frequently regaled dinner guests with amusing admissions anecdotes and discovered that people were fascinated by my stories and also anxious to share their equally outrageous tales. Inevitably, each of these conversations ended with my saying something like "this could be a novel." My husband, having heard me say this dozens of times, encouraged me to write one. So I did. ADMISSIONS is my first novel and I am currently at work on my second. I live in Manhattan with my husband and my daughter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (September 6, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446695890
• ISBN-13: 978-0446695893
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (55 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,638,209 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I LIVED THIS BOOK!, September 27, 2004

By 

Nina Krauthamer (NYC, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Admissions (Hardcover)

Most people don't find my reviews that helpful. I use the opportunity to write a review as a substitute for a good book club. Forgive me. As a mother of a child who is now at what may very well be The Downtown School, I can swear to you that this witty and delicious book captures the essence - or should I say the absolute corruption - of the admissions process. The book's genius is in the details. The vivid descriptions of how the characters look, act and dress will keep most readers in stitches. (I won't spoil anything by giving anything away!) As my mother used to counsel me, "Don't get mad, get even!". Ms. Leiberman cetainly got even, and the rest of us can enjoy the ride.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Admissions, September 18, 2004

By 

Sara B. Watkins "Discriminating Reader" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Admissions (Hardcover)

I thought Admissions was an incredibly funny, witty and incredibly well-written book. It bubbles over with New York jokes yet has a pertinent and poignant side to it. Anyone who's been through the "I must get my child (or grandchild or friend of a child's family) into a good elite provate school will find this book compelling. It made me laugh out loud and kept me in suspense. Does our heroine, Zoe, get into the "right" school? A totallay good read!

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top of Class, August 18, 2005

By 

sbd1187 (NY, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Admissions (Hardcover)

In my capacity as Admissions Director of one of the NY private schools Ms Lieberman so gloriously savages in her first novel, Admissions, all I can say is "Bravo." This is a book has been crying to be written. And it's all here. All the petty intrigues, the back biting (parents and faculty), clingy mothers, overly protective politically correct same sex families, spoiled little rich kids---
what a great tapestry of characters. It's a folly that is much closer to truth than to fiction. I give Admissions an A+.