Elements of Style [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Wendy Wasserstein (Author), Cynthia Nixon (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 18, 2006

From the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author of the essay collection Shiksa Goddess (“Utterly delicious”—Judith Thurman), a dazzling debut novel, a comedy about New York’s urban gentry living in a post-9/11 world—the arbiters of fashion and the doyennes of charity balls; about the rich and the nouveau rich(er), the glamorous and the desperate to be.

We meet Francesca Weissman, the Upper East Side pediatrician rated number one by Manhattan magazine, who takes us into the upper strata of privilege and aspiration (she’s originally from Queens with a father in hosiery; life on the fringes of glittering New York is fine with her) . . . Samantha Acton, thoroughbred descendant of the Van Rensselaers and the Carnegies, who defines the social order in the great tradition of Mrs. Astor and Babe Paley . . . Judy Tremont from Modesto, California, daughter of a cop—her life’s work, her obsession, is New York society and its richest families . . . Barry Santorini, Republican, moviemaker, winner of twelve Oscars, and his wife, the Italian supermarket heiress and former media rep for Giorgio Armani . . . and many more.

As Elements of Style opens out, we see a madcap mosaic of the social lives and mores of twenty-first century Manhattan—of romance, work, family, and friendship. Satiric, fierce, touching—and deliciously Wasserstein.

“Pure Wendy! She effortlessly makes the leap from stage to page with a novel that is loving, compassionate, flat-out funny. Wendy loved the word ‘scintillating,’ which is the best way to describe her stunning Elements of Style.”
—John Guare

“Wasserstein gets the trappings and tribulations (of friendship and of romance) right, making her depiction of the rich and fab trying to connect with one another witty and entertaining.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Bold, nimble, and funny to its fingertips, Elements of Style is a delight, a triumph. A book that no self-respecting New Yorker should be without. Those cursed with the hell of multiple residences will self-evidently need several copies—and spares, for houseguests.”
—Flora Fraser


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Nixon (Sex and the City) crafts tones and speech patterns for Wasserstein's Upper East Side rich and famous that simultaneously satirize and humanize them. She manages to individualize characters who are, finally, too stereotypic to hold up. Their egotism grows annoying, their race and class attitudes predictable, their divorces and mate swaps dreary. It's difficult to know whether to fault the author or the abridger, though one has no sense of missing sections or passages. All that said, this is Wendy Wasserstein writing. From the double entendre of the title—literary craft vs. fashion and social climbing—we enjoy the irony, humor and moral outrage that move like undertow. Janet Maslin aptly described the book as "chick lit with a chill and a pedigree," and Nixon makes the most of the best of Wasserstein's writing. Wasserstein's plays are superb; her first (and, sadly, only) novel, while entertaining, falls short. With her wicked wit, emotional and sociological insight, and perfect ear for dialogue, she would surely have written many more marvelous plays and, no doubt, some wonderful novels. What a loss!
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School–Young women, in particular, will revel in this tongue-in-cheek, thoroughly satirical depiction of post-9/11 New York society. Wasserstein's skill as a playwright is evident through the witty dialogue and farcical situations she used to create her deeply shallow, largely revolting characters. Inane values, a terrorist bombing, an accidental death, and a debilitating illness compose the dark elements of the novel, initially obscured by the author's light writing style. Our mutual vulnerability to these situations, she reminds readers, is beyond what money, power, and beauty can control. Society pediatrician Frankie Weissman, a compassionate and selfless individual, provides the perfect foil for the thoroughly unlikable primary characters. Frankie is Wasserstein's hero. Perhaps she is Wasserstein herself. This novel is about recognizing what is and who are worth loving.–Claudia C. Holland, Chantilly Regional Library, Fairfax County, VA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (April 18, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739333666
• ISBN-13: 978-0739333662
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1 x 6.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,641,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't quite live up to its potential, May 15, 2006

By 

Gregory Baird (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Elements of Style (Hardcover)

Halfway through Wendy Wasserstein's first and last novel a character remarks that something that happened to him was "like an obvious movie with a basic plot point. I'd fire a writer who came up with s*** like that." Wasserstein's clever, tongue-in-cheek poke at her own standard plotting and reliance on formula aside, that statement becomes all too true of "Elements of Style." She sets the novel up as a social satire of Manhattan's wealthy elite -- nouveau and otherwise, but the first half of the book has no more to say about society and shallowness than you would find in a Jackie Collins escapade (think of it as "Hollywood Wives" for the Manhattan set), a true disappointment for a novel with such a high pedigree and an obviously capable writer. You know exactly where the story is heading, and up to the novel's second half it will dully adhere to those predictions. Then, in a nod to post-9/11 anxiety and, one suspects, to Wasserstein's terrible illness, the story is deluged with random-acts-of-plotting to shake things up. There's an explosion, a cancer diagnosis, some break-ups and, most shocking of all, more than one death to be dealt with. But it comes too little, too late for the reader -- who has already lost interest in Wasserstein's paper-thin characters and begun to be more and more annoyed by them. I would guess that Wasserstein, in the throes of her own mortality, wanted to show the randomness of life's cruelties and that no one, no matter how rich, can buy off disaster or unhappiness. The intention almost rescues the novel, but gets bogged down in the irrelevance that Wasserstein treats the new developments with. By the book's end everyone has gone back to living the life that they were leading on page one. There is no growth, no development or improvement in a single one of the characters. She does, actually, make a good statement about the minor character of Jil and how, to him, style created content in his quest to put up the perfect front to the world and hide who he really was, but since no one takes that message to heart the reader is left wondering why she even bothered getting it in there. Perhaps Wasserstein was making a pessimistic prediction for the social-climbing set in the post-9/11 world, but by the conclusion of "Elements of Style" it has become too bothersome to care.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Breezy Light Read That Hits The Nail On The Head, July 23, 2006

By 

SKW "Mystery Maniac" (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elements of Style (Hardcover)

As one of the other reviewer's said -- "I liked it, but didn't love it." However, it is a near perfect characterization of upper crust New Yorkers. I felt it had a Gatsby-like thread in that the two few ordinary folks (Jil, Frankie, Judy and Charlie) are profoundly affected by the goings on of the rich and famous. The main difference is that unlike the poor Gatsby characters whose lives are ruined, Wasserstein's ordinary folks roll with the punches and are too cynical to be hurt by the elite class.

As for 9/11, I live and work in Manhattan and saw the Towers be attacked and fall, firsthand. Many friends and associates were lost that day. I lived through the sad, sad days and weeks afterwards. Beyond a mention of 9/11 here or there, this book could have taken place in the go go 80's or 90's. The book revealed none of the real 9/11 pathos that truly existed in the city.

Still, it's a fun romp through one of the greatest cities in the world.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Summer Fluff, August 10, 2006

By 

A. Vegan (Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elements of Style (Hardcover)

The colorful cast of characters includes style-setting Samantha, who suffers from self-esteem issues; Judy, a carb-abstaining gossip, whose social machinations make up a full-time job; and Clarice, who lists among her accomplishments the keeping of a steady supply of her husband's favorite English muffins at each of their four homes. The more narcissistic characters are balanced by Frankie Weissman, the down-to-earth pediatrician who treats the children of the rich and famous but is not affected by their excessive lifestyles. Chock-full of shopping, mansions, spa treatments, and fine dining, it is a sensuous read, but Wasserstein's ironic perspective saves it from being merely decadent.
Perhaps you just have to be a New Yorker to really appreciate this book though I think you could apply the personalities of Ms. Wassterstein's characters to people in any city. It was a very easy read, but quite predictable for the most part I thought. I was amazed that in a circle of people in NY immidiately post 9/11 there was no mention of any loss in the terrorist attacks. Not that I would have wanted her to dwell on that, but there were 8 or 9 central characters and no mention of a loss at all?