Boy was I underwhelmed by Anna Quinden's latest book...

[WCGreen]

the queen of "quip lit" has written, with Rise and Shine, what amounts to a serious Lifetime movie in waiting...

predictable, trit and once again inflating the self importance of New York beyond even the heights reached before 9/11, the book just falls far short of the glowing reviews I have read...

Oh well, I had to see what all the buzz was about...

[Berry Cool]

1. More details, please?

I'm really curious. I understand the book is about two sisters, one of them a co-host on a famous network morning news show. The co-host sister gets fed up with a male guest who she thinks is an asshole (I believe he has divorced his perfectly wonderful wife simply because she cannot have children, leaving her for a younger woman who was carrying his baby) and calls him an asshole under her breath while her microphone is still live just before a commercial break. All hell breaks loose, she ends up having to deal with the consequences of this "gaffe," and her sister observes from her comfortable perch in obscurity.

What makes it predictable, trite and elevatory of the self-importance of New York, in your eyes? (These are sincere questions, not challenges. I haven't read the book.)

[WCGreen]

2. Well, it is very contrived.... The book quips about

how New Yorkers view themselves...

Nothing Tom Wolfe hadn't covered more effectiviely in Bonfire of the Vantities...

The consequences of the "gaffe" are self impossed and really don't seem all that great...

There is a lame resolution with a supposed revalatory pay off somewhere...

There simply wasn't one for me...

I don't know, I was disappointed...

[question everything]

3. I am half way through it and like it very much

(perhaps I need to wait for the end)

I am comparing her to Edith Wharton of the Age of Innocence and the House of Mirth, describing the two New York societies. One, of the bankers and brokers that move from a lobby with a doorman to "black cars" to another lobby of their offices or clubs, of flying to exotic locales and running into the same people.

And the other, of abused and abandoned women and children, of shelters trying to find places for displaced families, of "regular folks" in Conney Island, of public housings.

Yes, she describes New York society, but so did Edith Wharton, and she is still well praised.

And it is really not just New York. This is what Edwards has been talking in his "Two Americas." This is the disdain mixed with jealousy of the "elites" of either coasts. New York is the center of the financial world, whether we like it or not, just as DC and LA are the centers of the political and entertainment worlds. And all are targets for the talk show hosts and their disgruntled followers.

[WCGreen]

4. I don't know... It just didn't work for me...

Maybe I was expecting writting on the level of Phillip Roth or Ian McEwan...

It did not live up to my expectations...

Perhaps that is why I was disappointed...

[latebloomer]

5. Huh-- I quite enjoyed it

I liked the contrast of the two sisters, found the descriptions of New York life very entertaining, and the book witty and moving.

To each his/her own. . .