Set in Los Angeles in the early 1980's, this coolly mesmerizing novel is a raw, powerful portrait of a lost generation who have experienced sex, drugs, and disaffection at too early an age, in a world shaped by casual nihilism, passivity, and too much money a place devoid of feeling or hope. Clay comes home for Christmas vacation from his Eastern college and re-enters a landscape of limitless privilege and absolute moral entropy, where everyone drives Porches, dines at Spago, and snorts mountains of cocaine. He tries to renew feelings for his girlfriend, Blair, and for his best friend from high school, Julian, who is careering into hustling and heroin. Clay's holiday turns into a dizzying spiral of desperation that takes him through the relentless parties in glitzy mansions, seedy bars, and underground rock clubs and also into the seamy world of L.A. after dark.
Holiday shop owner Carol Baker infuses her business and her life with peace and good will. But she has secrets from her past that make her all the more determined to someday have a family of her own. She never expects a sweltering July heat wave to bring the gift of a baby girl who needs a mother's love...and a man who needs to heal his wounded soul. Ex-LAPD copy Jack Reilly's back in town--temporarily--to fill in for the ailing local sheriff. Haunted by the tragedy that made him leave Los Angeles, Jack doesn't believe in "forever." His sassy landlady Carol, with her year-round Chistmas spirit, gorgeous smile, and adorable little foster daughter, Liz, begin to bring him back to life. But the past has a way of coming back again, and the dark places of the heart have a way of staying hidden. Still, good things have a way of happening in Christmas--and if the Reillys have anything to say about it, what develops between Carol and Jack will be some kind of wonderful...
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 FraserFrom the Hardcover edition.
A hard-driving movie executive. A beloved soap opera diva. A screenwriter nominated for an Oscar. A well-known actress married to TV's King of Late Night. Four women who have led charmed Hollywood lives; four friends facing middle age in the youth capital of the world. Show business sucked them in when they were young, and now it's trying its best to spit them out. But these women aren't finished fighting tooth and nail - albeit bonded tooth and acrylic nail - to enjoy the success they spent their youth pursuing. Especially when one of them ends up in the intensive care unit, a victim of a stalker with a gun. The ritual "Girls' Night" they have always shared for refuge and laughter tonight becomes a painful vigil as three women watch their friend fight for her life. And as they wait and worry they do what they have always done to keep themselves sane: tell stories about themselves. Tales of love affairs, wonderful or hilariously awful; of professional triumphs and betrayals. Bittersweet anecdotes about the sexism and ageism all four have encountered - the pain it takes to make the world believe in the glamour that is Hollywood. The stories remind them of why they're fighting and let them laugh together and celebrate the friendship that has made it all worthwhile. . But beyond the hospital the stalker is still undetected, still obsessed, not just with the victim but with all four women. They have lived the sunny side of the California dream, and the attacker has been left out in the dark. Without the old bonds that have linked them for years, the women will not survive this chilling night.
After the husband and wife that she works for disappear, live-in maid Araceli takes their two boys on a journey through sprawling Los Angeles to locate their grandfather.
Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis | Literally Just Books
