A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity [Hardcover]

Kathleen Gilles Seidel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 21, 2006

"Her daughter enjoyed a most uncommon degree of popularity." -Emma, Jane Austen

 

Your own daughter. . . one of the popular girls?
 
On the first day of middle school, Lydia Meadows, a former lawyer turned full-time mother, is startled to discover that her daughter Erin is one of the popular girls, a tight foursome whose mothers are also great friends.  Lydia has always thought of popular girls as ambitious little manipulators who enjoy being cruel.  But Erin is kind and well-adjusted.  Maybe this popularity thing won't be so bad after all.
 
Then a new student ruthlessly targets Erin to boost her own popularity, and Lydia helplessly wonders what to do when her daughter's phone stops ringing.  And the uneasiness among the girls begins to affect the friendship of the mothers--even though they are all grown women who should know better.  Has their driven energy, once directed toward their careers, turned into an obsession with the social lives of their daughters?
 
A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity is a delightful novel of manners, an unabashed chronicle of the rules, rituals, and pitfalls of raising a daughter.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Seidel catalogues the trials of upper-middle-class family life in a novel that will appeal primarily to the sort of people it aims to (gently) critique. Ex-lawyer Lydia Meadows is so busy bracing herself to deal with potential bullies that she's dazed to discover that her sixth grader, Erin, is—gasp—one of the popular girls at her posh Washington, D.C., private school. But when another girl knocks Erin from her pedestal, Lydia is shocked to find that Erin's fall from grace has reverberations in her own life. Four adult women, whom Lydia considered her best friends–cum– "professional associates... all in the business of raising children," adopt the petty behavior of their teenage daughters, which makes Lydia wonder where the line is between wanting the best for your children and being overly involved in their lives. Though there's the odd snippet of sharp social commentary, the story is bogged-down with minutiae (readers don't need to be walked through every car pool crisis to get the general idea), and Seidel beats some already-tired metaphors to death (the whole "it takes a village" concept, for example). This could have been a lively novel of manners, but dull prose and lackluster dramas (will the kids get into Sidwell Friends School?) flatten it. (Mar.)
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Review

"Jane Austen lives!"
-Mary Jo Putney, New York Times bestselling author of River Of Fire
"Insightful and entertaining!" -Susan Elizabeth Phillips, New York Times bestselling author of Match Me If You Can
"Heart-wrenching, funny." -Karen Quinn, author of The Ivy Chronicles

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (March 21, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312333269
• ISBN-13: 978-0312333263
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,251,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I Loved This Book...but, March 30, 2006

By 

Diane B. Wilkes "Diane Wilkes, Voracious Reader" (Oreland, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity (Hardcover)

I know most people would not.

Seidel has long been one of my favorite authors because she is very thoughtful and wise about human behaviors. Her characters are very real and go through an arc of self-exploration and self-discovery that seems true, and their small-scale successes and believable triumphs of the spirit. They make you want to get your own life--or at least your own dwelling--in order and perspective.

Not much happens in this novel of four suburban "soccer moms" and their daughters' entrance into the world of middle school socialization--if we're talking about action. Instead, we see what it means for well-educated, career women to focus their considerable talents on motherhood, how it impacts their marriages and their self-esteem and their priorities, not to mention their concept of themselves as women, wives, and mothers.

The issue of popularity and teenage girls is the ostensible focus, but this tale of manners covers far more ground than you would think. I should note that the title is taken from Jane Austen's Emma, and Seidel is, like Austen, quite the sharp and observant mistress of her little bit of ivory.

I docked the book a star because it is not a book you can wholeheartedly recommend to anyone...not in our action-oriented society. But you don't have to be a mom of a certain class to enjoy it--I am neither--you have to care about insight-driven novels. I do and I loved A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity, even though it is unlikely that the book will achieve that status.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A suprisingly enjoyable read, July 13, 2006

By 

K. Gettys "literarylizard" (Oklahoma) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity (Hardcover)

I have nothing in common with the characters of this book. I do not have kids or a husband but I was enthralled by this book. I read it in one sitting strangely caught up in the lives of Erin and Lydia. Seidel uses such warm, delicate languange when describing the links between the middle school girls and their mothers. Seidel portrays the agony of adolescence, the insecurity of adults and the yearning for the familiar and safe so well. It's a warm slice of someone else's life.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't Put it Down, March 23, 2007

By 

Mom of Sons (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Most Uncommon Degree of Popularity (Paperback)

I love novels, but I find I'm increasingly drawn to non-fiction; fiction often leaves me with a "Eh...so what?" feeling because it didn't really happen. But this bright, readable novel felt very real to me. To use a cliche, I'd say it "spoke" to my life where I am right now: a mother with teen and preteen sons, who is esquisitely (obsessively?) attuned to every social in-and-out in their lives. Especially, oh the agony, of the inevitable "outs." Highly recommended.