- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC; 1st edition edition (17 Jun 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747544964
- ISBN-13: 978-0747544968
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 15 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,524,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
Ever gone mad with a credit card? Wished you lived in New York? Craved upward-mobility? This tale of social climbing and compulsive spending, by the author of Slaves of New York, American Dad, A Cannibal in Manhatten and The Male Cross-Dresser Support Group, will cure you. For good.
Florence Collins is assistant director at a second-rate auction house. She doesn't earn enough to support her lifestyle, which requires the purchase of vast quantities of designer clothes and over-priced, pre-prepared foodstuffs. The cash she inherited from her mother is running out fast, she's 32--"A Certain Age" (or, according to NY society gossip columns, an "aging filly-about-town")--fully conscious of her own shallowness and lack of principles, and desperate for a husband. A rich husband. A very very very rich husband.
Janowitz's witty, nasty novel shows how Florence's crass attempts to capture this elusive creature draw her into a downward spiral through the superficial world of air-kissing, baby showers, fashionable art, infidelity and child-neglect, into her own personal hell. More self-destructive than Madame Bovary, like Bridget Jones with the nice bits amputated, in Florence Collins Tama Janowitz has created a tragi-comic anti-heroine who is just one big fatal flaw. Read it and shriek. --Lisa Gee
Review
'She's the heroine the 1990s deserve, and this novel of manners would distinguish any decade' Elle 'Blackly humorous' Esquire
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The setting for this novel is the dog-eat-dog world of Manhattan during the closing years of the 20th Century. It is populated by the same type of soulless characters as can be found in the pages of Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire Of The Vanities". In such a milieu true friendship is almost non-existent; social contacts being made, kept and dropped solely to further self-enterest. This is a world of style over substance where no one is anyone unless he or she has wealth, power and influence.
Florence is a lonely woman with little in the way of family or real friends. Despite her surface sophistication she never seems to quite fit into the super-affluent world she craves to be a part of: she flounders at crucial moments, swimming against a current too strong for her and then getting out of her depth.
An interesting aspect of the novel is that Florence is well aware of her own shallowness and lack of humanity, however she does nothing about this and continues to follow her own directive. Her life as portrayed here is goal-orientated with little time for any real contentment or self-reflection. It is astounding how a woman of only thirty-two (the 'certain age' of the title)could endure such a joyless existence - her behaviour is hidebound; she is a slave to fashion and protocol with little self-esteem or personal freedom.
This is a captivating book: Janowitz's attention to the details of Manhattan life produces some fine social satire indeed. There is also an existential tone to the novel in that there is a question of whether Florence is victim or fool. Was she just lacking sufficient urban survival skills in a ruthless Darwinian world, or blinded by her own greed and selfishness was she doomed to a suffering entirely of her own making? Ultimately is Florence the kind of person who would notice if the sun rose in the West? You will have to read this funny but tragic book and see for yourself.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I thought the book was great! The whole idea of Florence is that she is superficial and grasping; I neither liked nor disliked her but felt rather detached. The story isn't particularly strong, but I think the whole novel is more of a character study of Florence and the rich idiots whose company she favours - and as for the end, I thought it opened up all kinds of possibilities for our heroine!
Format:Hardcover
I had looked forward to reading this new novel from one of my favourite writers and was not disappointed. If you want a fast-paced, entertaining, terse, sharp read about the so-called NY high-life then this is one for you. Does not have the quirky edge of previous Janowitz novels and this I did miss. Characterisation was scant, efficent and fun but I wanted to get to know a few of the players a little better. Florence delighted and annoyed me throughout. There were points where I really wanted her to do something nasty to herself, just to break the pattern of relationship fatigue and spending. And how come her credit card never got refused! The ending made me yowl with frustration - is there going to be a sequel or can we presume Florence saw the Statue of Liberty, walked into the sunset and found another day? I guess so.... Looking forward to the next novel no matter.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Compulsive shopping...compulsive reading!
This is a great read even though it's fairly lightweight. No woman can fail to see just a little of themselves in the main character despite the fact that she's quite unbearable! Read more
Published on 20 July 2001
Want to be utterly depressed? Read this book!
The front cover of this book promises a hilarious read. I was expecting a sort of Sex in the City clone but now I've read the book I realise that it is both signally different to... Read more
Published on 11 Sep 2000
superficial characters - weak book
Kept hoping this book would improve but right up until the last it was poor. The characters were superficial, the story line was boring - overall there was really nothing to... Read more
Published on 29 Sep 1999
As easy to put down as it is to pick up.
I had read that this book was the US equivalent of Bridget Jones's diary. This it isn't. The only similarity is that the heroine is female. Read more
Published on 31 Aug 1999
Interesting spiral of self destruction
Janowitz sets out to destroy the life of her main character from day one through a series of events which Florence never takes control of. Read more
Published on 10 July 1999
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