The Ivy Chronicles (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Karen Quinn's The Ivy Chronicles is the amusing story of what happens when a New Yorker loses her job, her husband, and her ritzy Park Avenue pad and is forced to carve out a new niche for herself and her two private school-educated daughters. After transferring the girls to public school and renting a shabby-chic (at best) flat upstairs from a knicherie, Ivy Ames takes her billionaire friend Faith's advice and starts a consulting business to help privileged pre-schoolers get into the city's premier kindergartens. Light on substance yet heavy on laughs, Quinn does a reasonably successful job of following in the well-heeled footsteps of earlier gossip lit standouts such as The Nanny Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada.

While Ivy's moral quandaries (is it really wrong to accept an alligator-skin Prada in exchange for securing a child's placement at a top "Baby Ivy") and often raunchy romances form the basis for this exposé, it is the toddlers' family stories that get the most laughs along the way. From Maria Kutcher, whose mob boss father is often referred to as "Kutcher the Butcher" to Winnie Weiner, a "nice Jewish girl from the Upper West Side" who becomes the African-American WaShaunte Washington in order to snag a "diversity" spot at the top schools, Quinn spares no one when it comes to exposing the habits of the rich and almost-famous. Yet even as Ivy begins to see the error of her snobbish ways, Quinn never quite lets her off the hook completely ("...it was such a relief to have a powerful man to lean on. Why couldn't I have one of my very own? Why?"). Still, for those of us who are in need of a quick laugh and have a few hours to spare, The Ivy Chronicles promises to entertain and amuse. --Gisele Toueg

From Publishers Weekly

When 39-year-old Ivy Ames loses her corporate job, her big-shot husband, Cadman, cheats on her and she's too poor for her pampered Upper East Side lifestyle, she finds herself creating a new life for herself and her two young daughters on New York's exponentially less tony Lower East Side. Ivy hammers out a living helping the city's elite nab spots in the most exclusive private kindergartens in town, but first-time author Quinn's book isn't a feel-good tale about realizing money isn't everything. Even as Ivy comes to understand that her former life among the ultra-rich was absurd and shallow at best, she continues to hope that she'll snag a new husband so rich that she'll never have to work again. Quinn's characters are unapologetically shallow, two-dimensional cartoons designed to affably lampoon the silliness of New York's elite, giving readers ample opportunity to snicker at people like a newspaper mogul willing to pay off the FDA to get her demon child into a "baby Ivy" league kindergarten and other wealthy, overly successful parents who use their kids to channel ambition and perpetuate elitism. It's good fun in small doses, but lengthy exposure to the cotton candy plot and caricaturish characters may leave readers with the zombie-like feeling produced by watching too many reality TV makeovers.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (January 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670033812
• ISBN-13: 978-0670033812
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #814,852 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I know I SHOULD hate this book, February 5, 2005

By	www.bookshipper.blogspot.com/ "www.bookshippe... (Montreal, Quebec) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I know that I should hate this book. Ivy is shallow, shallow but she somehow manages to attract love and attention by EVERYONE in her surroundings. She is a minimal mother (at best), she is manipulative and a liar.

Yet, I enjoyed this book. I think this book is just so over the top that its enjoyable. I laughed in a few spots and basically just enjoyed this thing.

Who knew?

Is it great lit? NOPE, but if you are looking for a lightweight but fun read, buy this.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What would you do to get your child into kindergarten?, November 11, 2005

By	Tonya Speelman "Hoarder of books" (Goldendale WA) - See all my reviews

Well these parents top it all! They lie, cheat, threaten, bribe, and the list goes on! Not only are the parents doing it, but Ivy who has had the worst luck with her job and husband and needs money to support her own children is involved.

Although I do agree she didn't redeem herself fully, this book was entertaining and laughable. I don't live like them, so I have no clue about that kind of lifestyle. It seems none of them appreciate what they have, or realize that these are CHILDREN but it was entertaining and I did enjoy it. Isn't that what a book is sometimes? Away from the world, a place to escape and fantasize?

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars This is really, really bad, May 2, 2007

By	Mom Who Thinks (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

I'm a writer and a mom of young children and when I read this I was looking for some enlightenment...at the very least some entertainment. This is a poorly written book with a remarkably thin, assinine plot and a ridiculous main character. I think it appeals to some moms out there because they've truly lost their intellectual capabilities and identities by focusing all their attention on their children and spending most of their time in coffee klatches with other like-minded moms.