Customer Reviews

Admissions

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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!

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+.

My wife's book group read Admissions and she raved about it. With a little one applying to private school here in Atlanta, it came highly recommened by her. What a enjoyable read. Normally I'm a Michael Connelly, James Hall kinda reader, but Lieberman's book was funny, good characters, and a boffo finale.

As your typical (neurotic) Upper Eastside parent, Admissions is already the rage among the parents of my daughter's eighth grade classmates. Everybody is talking admissions! Two years ago my son went through the New York private school entry process and I felt like I had descended into Dante's 7th ring of hell. Lieberman doesn't miss a single beat here, or leave anyone unscathed with a viciously funny turn of the screw. She nails how I felt every single day until our acceptance letters arrived in February. The behind the scenes plotting, the helplessness, the mood swings, the hilarious craziness of the entire process make the truth almost stranger than the fiction!!! Admissions is the "Guide to the Elite Private Schools the Elite Private Schools Don't Want You to Know About". The question among my friends is what is the Fancy Girls School? (Brearly? Spence? Chapin?) What about The Progressive School (the funniest portrayal of any school visit I've ever experienced-- outside of our own personal one at Trevor Day, but that's a whole other story!!!!) This is going to keep people guessing all year... Ironically, for such a New York book, it really isn't such a NY story. My friends in Washington, Tampa, Chicago, Houston, and especially LA all have their own variations on this same theme (only the names and places have changed to protect the innocent).... though by brilliantly choosing to broadly paint the academic institutions by generic category (The Very Brainy Girls School...The Safety School... The Bucolic Campus School), Lieberman creates a world that relatable to everybody. Even those parents who are considering public school-- because face it, if my daughter gets into Stuyvesant or Hunter this year, she'll be going in a nanosecond.

..... then you'd have Admissions. A hysterical, satire that is a cross between Bonfire of the Vanities and The Nanny Diaries. Lieberman draws a hilarious picture of the seamy underbelly of the admissions circus. Her characters are believable, the situations are relatable, and entire scenes make you laugh out loud. I had to live through this nightmare last year when my daughter was applying to Pre-K, and Admssions doesn't miss a beat. It's just like my life, only a whole lot funnier. Admissions gets an A+ from this mom!!!!!!!!!!

A satire of the admissions processes by which adolescents get into the top feeder schools in New York City, Admissions is about the struggle parents go through as they worry about their child's future.

"The Tuesday after Labor Day marked the official start of admissions season, the Manhattan parents' version of a blood sport." Thus begins Admissions, comedic and irreverent, and a fantastic novel in general. Helen Drager is one of the parents at The School, a K-8 "feeder-feeder" to some of the best private schools in the city. How she tries to get her daughter admitted to schools with such names as, "The Fancy Girls' School," and "The Progressive School," is a small part of this excellent novel. Her daughter, Zoe, feels caught up in the whirlwind of admissions activity which plagues her during the frustrating months between September and February.

We also get a look at the life of Sara Nash, the head of Admissions at The School. Able to maintain her sense of humor, Sara seems to be the only character in this novel who can see things in proportion. She has to run the gamut of children whose parents are what determine whether or not they get in- due to fame, money, etc.

I purchased this book for a friend who has lived through the Admissions process for private schools in another city. Her stories have entertained me for years about the parents who would say or do anything to get their children into the schools of their choice. And now Nancy Lieberman has nailed this culture in her book "Admissions."

The plot of Admissions is straightforward and simple. Helen and Michael Drager, a lovely Yuppie couple in an exquisite apartment in New York, are applying their beloved eighth grade daughter to a number of private schools in NYC. The schools have names like "The Very Brainy Private Girls School," "The Progressive School," "The Very Fancy Girls School" and so on.

Meanwhile, at Zoe's private grammar school, known simply as "The School," their admissions director Sara is undergoing a private hell of her own as she is besieged by applicants for Kindergarden. Sara's boss, Pamela, the Head of the School has remained indifferent to all of Sara's troubles as well as those of the eighth grade parents. No one is quite sure what she is doing: but they have a feeling it is not good, ethical or legal. But no one wants to blow the whistle on her during the Admissions process.

The book follows a six month period-from first call for application to the final letter of admission-in the lives of all of these individuals. While the characters are cartoonish, they are still very amusing. In addition, Lieberman embroiders her book with some very funny supporting characters--a TV talk show host modeled on Oprah with a "turkey baster" child, a gay couple with twins named after their favorite Russian Czar and Czarinas--who keep popping up throughout the book. She also has a poignant character, an eighth grade girl with a severe eating disorder, whose parents refuse to recognize her illness and keep pushing for her admission to their top choice.

This book is great fun. It's not much more: Lieberman could have done a bit more with the plot and added a few more storylines. Still I highly recommend this book to lovers of chick lit, parents (of both sexes) everywhere who have children of this age (whether or not they are applying to private schools) and to individuals who simply enjoy an amusing satire of one slice of American life.

With my four year old ready to apply for private school this year, my sister strongly recommeded that I NOT include Admissions on my summer reading list. She said it would only caused agita now and I would much more enjoy it after the process was complete in February. I really enjoyed the read; if Lieberman is anywhere close, I'm not looking forward to the next six months. I only hope I hold up as well as Helen Drager ; and maybe I'll meet my Phillip Cashin :-)
The interview portion of this novel were at the same time hysterically funny and hysterically terrifying. Too bad Danny is not eligible for an athletic scholarship. He's a heck of a soccer player. Hmmm. Maybe that'll work in his favor. I'm really glad I didn't wait and postpone the joy I got from reading this wonderful book. I only hope it isn't too close to the truth.

one of the reasons we moved from socal to arizona was to avoid the whole private school mess; then i find out it's really no different anywhere you live in the US. until more money is spent to improve the public schools and teachers are paid the kind of money they deserve to be earning for teaching our kids, private school is just going to be an obvious alternative. this book is a hysterically funny sorry of one woman's descent into the hell that is private school admissions. her plight is recognizable to any of us who have been their. the names of the schools have been changed to protect the guilty, but if this book was set in Scottsdale I could tell you the name of every one. great job to Ms. Lieberman for a funny, insightful, moving book anyone who has children will enjoy.