Elements of Style

A break from the political postings that have dominated lately, and a return to my first true love: books! Who wouldn’t want to read a novel whose title pays homage to the great Strunk and White? I’d never read anything by Wendy Wasserstein before but, of course, loved this title. And I’d heard great things about some of her plays.

The book is a lot fluffier than I had imagined it would be, but Wasserstein injects a serious shot of satire to the froth, which made it much more enjoyable for me. She gives us the very grounded Francesca Weissman to relate to, and through Frankie’s eyes we watch the fascinating yet ridiculous lives of Manhattan’s most successful and ambitious socialites. They worry about the resilience of their underarm fat despite daily 5:00 a.m. Pilates classes. They pity each other for imperfectly decorated dinner parties. They imagine the horrors of (gasp!) flying commercial.

There were very few characters I’d actually want to know in real life (luckily, most of the characters would never stoop to knowing me, either) but they made for some fun reading.