"The wrong kind of money" is what the fabulously wealthy Lieblings of New York have--new money, Jewish money. Jules Leibling built the family fortune by selling liquor to the likes of Al Capone, laying the foundation for the Ingraham Corporation. The company is still run by his widow, Hannah, now in her eighties. Son Noah is being groomed to take over the company, but Hannah is reluctant to step aside and give him full control. Despite their wealth, Noah and his nice wife, Carol, have never been a part of New York's inner social circle, personified by snooty Georgette Van Degan. But Truck Van Degan has decided that cultivating the Lieblings would be good for business, so Carol and Georgette are lunching together at Le Cirque, and the gossip columns note that they are planning the party of the century. The novel begins with a murder trial, though the victim and the defendant aren't revealed until the end. In between, Brimingham relates his saga of the events that led up to the murder in a style that mingles melodrama with a convincing journalistic-insider's view. Fans of Birmingham's other books, and readers who like family sagas and chronicles of the rich and famous, will enjoy digging in to this big, juicy read.
Mary Ellen Quinn
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
Another mesh of family messes set firmly in Birmingham's (Carriage Trade, 1993, etc.) undisputed fief--the glitter of wealth and acidulous class conflict among an insulated enclave of Jewish Manhattanites, either of the self-proclaimed ``right sort,'' or those who moved on up despite an inelegant background. Birmingham's crowd is all here: the steely matriarch, sons both hale and hopeless, and women wholesome, witchy, or just plain lost. There's also mystery, scandals (with past flashbacks), mean schemes, shouts and whispers. Hannah Liebling (n‚e Sachs) in her mighty eighties, has withheld from hardworking son Noah the CEO- ship of the great Ingraham liquor empire. The business had been founded by her late husband Jules, a tough Canadian ex-bartender, who during Prohibition worked easily with Capone et al. and gave Joe Kennedy a leg up. Hannah's other son, Cyril, had been long ago discarded by Jules, and much married daughter Ruth is into interchangeable boy toys. Meantime, Noah's wife Carol, in their monstrous luxury building, has a full plate. There's her crazy hysteric-religious mother in Kansas; negotiation on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum for a porcelain collection belonging to a descendent of the man who had tried to bar Jules from a ``restricted'' building years before; attempts to fend off Hannah's many plots to keep Noah under her thumb; and, worst, the full-blown seduction of Noah by his daughter Anne's best friend. (All this while a trendy novelist, who stirs the scrawny bods of the Ladies who Lunch, creeps on his nasty rounds.) Small wonder, then, that so much mischief eventually leads to murder, and the obligatory stunning denouement. Dark doings in Manhattan castles, done with juicy excess: Titillating pop that reads like a dream. --
Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
