false 509733 13 <b>Guest Reviewer: Plum Sykes</b><br/> Plum Sykes burst onto bookshelves in 2004 with her internationally-acclaimed bestseller <i>Bergdorf Blondes</i>, a novel in which she spotlighted the lives of New York's Park Avenue Princesses. Born in London and educated at Oxford, Sykes is a contributing editor at <i>Vogue</i>, where she writes on fashion, society, and Hollywood. She has also written for <i>Vanity Fair</i> magazine. Her latest novel is <i>The Debutante Divorcee</i>.<br/><br/> <hr class="bucketDivider" noshade="true" size="1"> <p/> <img src="http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/promos/a-plus/debutante.jpg" border="0" align="left"/> <img src="http://g-ec2.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/books/promos/a-plus/Plum.jpg" border="0" align="left"/> <p/>"If you want to see rich people act really rich, go to St. Henry's School for Boys at 3p.m. on any weekday." Or you could just read Holly Peterson's debut novel, <i>The Manny</i>. The first line of this rather delicious story sets us up for what is to come: a satire of money, marriage, men and mannys. ("The Manny" of the title is actually a male nanny, just another parenting trend for Manhattan's uber-rich.) <p/>Peterson's heroine is Jamie Whitfield, a middle class girl from middle America who, supposedly, married well. She works as a news producer and it is through her that we get an inside peek at Manhattan's silly rich. In Peterson's well-drawn world, Whitfield and her hotshot lawyer husband, Philip, inhabit a specific area of Manhattan's Upper East Side, dubbed `The Grid'. Although Jamie fell hard for Philip when they were in their twenties, little did she realize she was marrying a man who thinks making a million or so a year means he is poverty-stricken, whose personal vanity knows know bounds and whose preferred reading material is books with titles like <i>How To Raise Children in an Affluent Environment</i>. <p/>With the ghastly husband getting more revolting by the second, her son Dylan losing his confidence, and Jamie's work going wrong, it's not long before Peter Bailey, a thirty year old manny--who also happens to be outrageously sexy--enters the fray. Now, there is nothing more amusing than the posh girl falling for The Help, but upright Jamie holds out--for pages and pages and pages--determined not to cheat on her husband. But when Jamie discovers another Alpha Mom has seduced Peter in her linen closet during a play date, it seems only a matter of time before the inevitable happens. <p/>Peterson has a keen eye for the zeitgeist. She describes the world of the hedge-fund billionaires and their excessive desires with sharp precision and a steely honesty. She takes us to their children's lavish birthday parties, explores the exact kind of fringing their cushions require and even kindly translates their slang for us: "its wheels up at three" actually means "my private plane takes off at three o'clock". Though the detail of such an extreme lifestyle could become suffocating, at its heart the book has a more human crisis to explore--a marriage in jeopardy. The fun comes with the love affair with the Manny. It's <i>Lady Chatterly's Lover</i> for the beach. <hr class="bucketDivider" noshade="true" size="1"> 2417937 19 6 2007 The Manny total:613|5:44|4:146|3:216|2:149|1:58| 613 1808 845 158 4 0 false false Wed Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 13:13:55 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 01 13:52:34 -0700 2009
Loved this story of a working mom, her 3 children and her absent husband trying to li...more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Nov 14 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 10 01:10:12 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 23 16:49:50 -0800 2009 1 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 31 09:38:49 -0700 2008 Sun Aug 31 09:39:03 -0700 2008 It was only a matter of time. Once The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin came out, and Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding became popular, chick lit was in full swing. It was only natural that The Manny by Holly Peterson would be written. For those ...more...]]> 2 0 true false Tue Jul 03 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu May 01 09:43:40 -0700 2008 Mon May 26 08:26:18 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Mon Sep 03 20:51:13 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 03 20:55:09 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 10:53:14 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 19 10:56:26 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Mon Sep 15 23:57:07 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 16 00:04:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 14:08:41 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 29 14:08:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Nov 21 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Nov 12 11:29:14 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 21 05:09:19 -0800 2008 1
The second half of the book really saved it for me, even though I wished there would have been more ab...more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu May 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue May 05 18:58:08 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 10:04:58 -0700 2009 As predicted, I didn't finish it - I skipped to the end and what happened was exactly what I thought would happen. I don't think I'd recommend this book to any of my friends - it's not exactly the stellar moral...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Oct 05 22:26:08 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 22:37:19 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Wed Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jul 10 01:13:33 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 12:49:16 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 11 10:42:06 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 11 10:42:06 -0700 2009 1 0 false false Thu Sep 24 14:36:36 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 24 14:36:40 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Fri Apr 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 20:11:48 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 20:13:41 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 17:52:48 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 04 17:52:48 -0800 2008 i feel like this author could write something significant if she didnt write silly romantic comedies. and what's with the...more...]]> 3 0 true false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Dec 31 07:13:13 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 31 07:15:53 -0800 2008 1 1 0 false false Thu Jun 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 06:04:26 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 12 06:07:32 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Wed Mar 04 14:06:28 -0800 2009 Wed Mar 04 14:07:41 -0800 2009 2 0 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Dec 01 20:08:11 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 20:09:57 -0800 2008
many thanks to one Emily fitter for interviewing with the publishing house and circulating the book before it hit the shelves.]]>