The Life Swap [Paperback]

In 1973, the bright and talented but also somewhat ditzy Nancy Weber was living an enchantingly carefree, somewhat cushy life as a freelance writer in Manhattan with a hefty allowance from her parents and a wide and disparate cast of trendy friends. In an act of '70s self-exploration, she put an ad in the Village Voice offering to completely swap lives -- clothes, jobs, lovers, names, everything -- with another woman for a month. This is her fantasy, and she will enjoy it, but the woman who agrees to swap with her, a somewhat rigid and politically correct bisexual feminist psychologist, discovers that -- like most of us -- she really can't stand the idea that other people make drastically different life choices, and begins to meddle in "Nancy's" life from day one.

More than this I can't say without spoiling the suspense and surprises. There is a catastrophe, and then we get both sides of the story in the words of the participants (each trying to subtly discredit the other's account), plus

additional essays from witnesses on both sides of the story; it's a grand, goofy Aquarian "Rashomon." Because Nancy is a superb writer with no internal censor (and her swapee is no slouch, either), the whole thing -- sex, drugs, bizarre interpersonal relationships, seven or eight new kinds of self-embarassment, the beautifully-captured trendy Manhattan milieu -- becomes one of the best satiric and comic "novels" you will ever read, as all the protagonists give away so much more of themselves than they intend with every sentence they write.

So why isn't it a famous classic? Mainly, I suspect, it's because the class of people being exposed in it is the same class of people who wrote all the book reviews, then and now. But if ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN got past those people, you'd think this would. Maybe Nancy Weber doesn't get credit for the result because she didn't make it up, it actually happened; but I think she could get extra credit for surviving it. I should add that my comments on the actual people involved are only in reference to the way they appear in the book; there's no such thing as completely non-fiction. And although the book is hideously funny and "satirical" in a sometimes unintended way, I don't mean to imply that the author is completely unconscious of the effects she's creating, or that you wind up laughing at her and not with her. On the contrary, despite all her efforts to win the catfight of conflicting stories at the end, she comes off as completely charming and likeable, as well as intelligent and gutsy. I have no idea if I've succeeded in suggesting the unique character of this sui generis book. Buy it, read it, mention it every time you meet a publisher. This should be in print again, and always.

Nancy what a wild adventure you went on. I'd love to talk with you about it - please send me an email if you happen upon this review.