- Hardcover: 256 pages
- Publisher: St Martin's Press (1 Feb 2007)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312363893
- ISBN-13: 978-0312363895
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 14.5 x 2.5 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,274,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Kathryn "Lazy" Hoffman is the headmistress of the Griffin School, in the midst of an affair she almost can't remember why she started - her marriage, after all, is a good one. Lazy ministers to students, but her cross to bear is the parents: from the imperious head of the board of trustees to the more average thorns who just can't understand why their little darlings aren't fast-tracked to Harvard. There is one student who's clearly on his way to Cambridge: Michael Avery, smart and driven, but so troubled it's hard for him to get through life as a senior in high school. That drill includes his girlfriend Julianne Coopersmlth, a sweetly compassionate child of divorce who happily wears hand-me-down designer clothes from her best friend, and adores Michael even in the face of his neediness and meltdowns. After all, she's all he has - he certainly doesn't have his mother, Susan, who finds it easier to love her Chinese Crested Hairless than her own brilliant and tortured son. Fast-paced, gently satirical, yet deeply felt, "Posh" is a surprisingly poignant and knowing novel distinguished by its spare and elegant prose.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
32 reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
fast, yet incredibly moving read
22 Feb 2007
Format:Hardcover
I finished Posh a few weeks ago but find myself still thinking about the characters in this novel. This book follows the story of various students, parents and the headmistress of an elite private school in Manhattan. I initially thought this would be a fun piece of fluff, but the issues of death and mental illness explored in this story quickly disavowed me of that notion! It took me a little while to get used to one of the main characters being known as "Lazy", but once I did, I devoured this book and would love to know what other books Lucy Jackson (a pseudonym) has written.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
witty and penetrating
28 Jan 2007
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was quite drawn to this for several reasons, the most intriguing of which was that the author, a respected and lauded literary novelist (who has published in the New Yorker), had decided to bring this out under a pseudonym. Also, the cover art was quite fetching. I started reading in the bookstore, was hooked immediately and decided to buy it for a Valentine's gift -- which I still plan on giving -- but couldn't help finishing the book before I wrapped it.
Only an enormously talented literary writer could tred so delicately between wit, humor, irony and poignancy. This book is obviously meant to be a satire, but there are so many moments in which the reader is gripped and moved. The world of the Upper Eastside private school is somewhat familiar to me; however, I believe Jackson gives it a fresh spin. Beyond this, beneath this satire is a cautionary tale that is very current insofar as it can be related to all the newspaper stories that we've read recently about how some parents will do anything to get their children into the right college. All of this is juxtaposed with hilarious set pieces about life at private school. And Jackson has a great feel for the one-liner. She gets off plenty of zingers.
I love how at the center of the novel a frustrated novelist forced to work as a cab driver is, along with her daughter, trying to negotiate a private school world populated by people who are so much richer than she is. You feel for her as you do her daughter.
Invariably this book will be compared to Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep. They are two very different books. While Sittenfeld's book is fresh and full of first novel brio, it is very much a first novel, soft in places, not fuly formed, jejeune. However, it's clear when you're reading Jackson that this woman is an accomplished pro. She has complete and effortless command of her narrative and her characters. Her dialogue crackles with wit. I gobbled up this book. Now I can't help wondering who Jackson might be.
Only an enormously talented literary writer could tred so delicately between wit, humor, irony and poignancy. This book is obviously meant to be a satire, but there are so many moments in which the reader is gripped and moved. The world of the Upper Eastside private school is somewhat familiar to me; however, I believe Jackson gives it a fresh spin. Beyond this, beneath this satire is a cautionary tale that is very current insofar as it can be related to all the newspaper stories that we've read recently about how some parents will do anything to get their children into the right college. All of this is juxtaposed with hilarious set pieces about life at private school. And Jackson has a great feel for the one-liner. She gets off plenty of zingers.
I love how at the center of the novel a frustrated novelist forced to work as a cab driver is, along with her daughter, trying to negotiate a private school world populated by people who are so much richer than she is. You feel for her as you do her daughter.
Invariably this book will be compared to Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep. They are two very different books. While Sittenfeld's book is fresh and full of first novel brio, it is very much a first novel, soft in places, not fuly formed, jejeune. However, it's clear when you're reading Jackson that this woman is an accomplished pro. She has complete and effortless command of her narrative and her characters. Her dialogue crackles with wit. I gobbled up this book. Now I can't help wondering who Jackson might be.
9 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Really hard to finish
31 Jan 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Though it's not the worst book I've ever read, it is certainly the worst I've read in several years. I could hardly make myself finish it, but soldiered on in hopes that it would get better. The writing style is stale and unoriginal, and the characters are pathetic. By the middle of the book, I realized that I didn't care what happened to any of them. The characters all seem like pitiful stereotypes with no redeeming and/or original qualities, while the description of the private school is laughable. The most ridiculous character of all is the student who is an Arab prince and robs fellow students at gunpoint for no apparent reason! Save your time and money and give this book a miss!
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