Social Lives [Hardcover]

Wendy Walker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2009

Step into picture-perfect Wilshire, home to some of the most privileged people in the world, where one woman’s desperate act could bring the precariously balanced social order crashing down…

Wilshire, Connecticut, the gilded enclave of Manhattan’s prosperous elite, appears to be a vision of suburban tranquility: the mansions are tastefully designed, the lawns are expertly manicured, and the streets are as hushed as the complexities in the residents’ lives. While Wilshire's husbands battle each other in the financial world, their wives manage their estates and raise the next elite generation. Some women are envied, some respected, and others simply tolerated. But regardless of where they stand, each woman is defined by the world she inhabits and bound by the unyielding social structure that surrounds her.

Rosalyn Barlow, the most envied woman in Wilshire, is waging a battle of social manipulation to silence the scandalous gossip that threatens her daughter's reputation while her self-made billionaire husband grows more and more distant in his young retirement. But for fourteen year-old Caitlin Barlow, navigating life as a teenager in a culture of wealth and sexual promiscuity has become far more perilous than either of her parents knows. Newcomer Sarah Livingston has nothing but disdain for everyone and everything around her and a growing terror at having another child in a world she's come to resent. As she is pulled into the Barlow family's storm, the walls begin to close in around her marriage and the life she once thought she wanted. And for Jacqueline Halstead, who's just discovered her husband is under investigation for fraud surrounding his hedge fund, saving her family from total ruin means doing the unthinkable - and shaking the Barlow family, Wilshire's insular community, and herself to the core.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Walker halfheartedly investigates the unhappy lives of women in a rich Connecticut suburb in her disappointing second outing (after Four Wives). Jacks Halstead is the materially comfortable wife of a hedge fund manager whose secretiveness and locked briefcase make her suspect that all is not well. But Jacks is a survivor, and soon she's seducing the very rich husband of Rosalyn Barlow, the community's social empress and, ostensibly, Jacks's friend. For her part, Rosalyn is an icy master manipulator, who needs to perform damage control after their 14-year-old daughter is caught performing fellatio on a boy at school. A pawn in Rosalyn's scheme is Sara, a guileless young newcomer bent on leaving the middle class behind. Throughout, the prose is pedestrian (warm smiles, crisp fall air) when it isn't ridiculous (his tongue lay inside her mouth like a giant anchovy) A banal ink-and-paper soap opera, this achieves neither the pluck of chick lit nor the glitziness of a Jackie Collins. (Sept.)
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Review

"Wendy Walker's provocative insight into the minds and hearts of her characters’ discontent is alternately tender and shocking. Proving that money can never fill the empty places of the soul, Social Lives explores the suburban world of material excess with heartbreaking accuracy."

--Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Driftwood Summer and The Art of Keeping Secrets

 

“In Social Lives, Wendy Walker vividly reveals how the world of money and privilege affects the women who inhabit it, bringing to light the family dynamics it corrupts, the glittering cages it creates, and most poignantly, the lengths some will go to keep it in their grasps. A pitch-perfect novel for our times.”

--Liz Lange, Founder of Liz Lange Maternity

 

"This gripping tale of domestic intrigue and social aspirations in the super-wealthy suburbs of Connecticut will scandalize and enthrall you."

--Elise Chidley, author of Your Roots Are Showing

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (September 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312378165
• ISBN-13: 978-0312378165
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #581,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Wendy Walker has been a stay-home mom for the past eleven years. She began writing about the world around her and is now the author of two novels, Four Wives and Social Lives, both published by St. Martin's Press. Wendy is a former attorney and investment banker and graduated magna cum laude from Brown University and Georgetown University Law Center. Wendy occasionally edits for Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing (Power Moms, Thanks Mom, Thanks Dad), and she is currently working on her third novel.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars entertaining look at the rich and not famous, September 6, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Lives (Hardcover)

In Winchester, Connecticut, the four wives meet to plan and host an event at Winchester Academy. Rosalyn, married to billionaire Barlow, is the social leader who decides who is in and who is not. Newcomer Sara gave up investigative reporting to marry Wall Street guru Nick, but has doubts about a second child while they are over budget in renovating their McMansion. After sneak peeks into her husband's locked attach case, Jacks fears that David's hedge fund has collapsed even as she worries the Feds are looking into potential illegal deals and loan sharks want instant payment. Eva likes her role as a wife and as a relationship saboteur.

Eva knows Jacks and Barlow are having an affair; instead of ignoring it or outing them, she arranges for Queen Rosalyn to believe Sara is the other woman. Meanwhile Rosalyn worries about her fourteen years old daughter Caitlin going hot and heavy with student hunk Kyle; thus the event in which a sexologist will warn parents that teens prefer Friends with Benefits rather than commitments. Caitlin wants more from Kyle, but knows the student queen of mean Amanda is manipulating both of them while she turns to a friend on the net for advice and solace.

This is an entertaining look at the affluent who asks themselves is that all there is as they are discontented with their lives. Rosalyn, Sara and Jacks are developed enough for their disgruntlement to seem genuine though few readers will feel any empathy towards the golden spoon crowd. The behind the scenes manipulator Eva is underdeveloped especially why she enjoys being Machiavelli in Connecticut. Still fans who like reading about the rich and not famous will want to read the SOCIAL LIVES of FOUR WIVES.

Harriet Klausner

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative, fast and fun, October 22, 2009

By 

E. Carbo (usa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Lives (Hardcover)

The book lifts the veil of perfection and happiness from "rich and respectable" families. The writing is clear and the pace quick as Walker describes the motives behind the endless quest for power and prestige once substantial money has been established. Social Lives is an in depth look at the deals women and men strike to allow their privileged and complicated lives possible. Walker writes in an unflinching style as she reveals her characters' attempts to transcend self-destructive behavior after too many of their justifications lead to the loss of what they truly cherish and value.

The book's pace does not sacrifice intimate exploration of the characters: Husbands and wives try to discern true love in their mature marriages; teenagers turn their first sexual encounters into status symbols while ignorant of the consequences. Walker's plot progresses to when these characters discover that their choices are less than what they believed they had negotiated or won.

By the end of the novel I was hooked and wanted to know more about the future of the characters. How would Caitlin react if she ever discovered her mystery friend? Could David survive a trial? Can Jacks ever forgive herself? Will any of these people ever let go of their past? In sum, Social Lives is a fascinating window into the coveted lives of the affluent, which are filled with as much hope and angst, humor and disillusion as any family.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars fun, suspenseful, and thought-provoking, September 13, 2009

By 

Amy Newmark (Cos Cob, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Social Lives (Hardcover)

I read this book in one day - couldn't put it down. It's a fun, suspenseful, and thought-provoking look at a segment of American society that really does exist, however incredible that may seem. This is as fun to read as chick lit, but much deeper. It really makes you consider the role of upper middle class women who have an implied deal with their husbands when they stay home to raise the kids while their husbands keep working. The plot was fascinating and the character development was excellent - you really get the know the characters.