Breezy glimpse into the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of modern celebrity culture and the women’s-magazine business.
Dedicated editor-in-chief’s brilliant career goes into a tailspin after a flamboyant celebrity takes over her magazine, a plot that mirrors the litigious saga of Rosie (i.e., O’Donnell) magazine, to which former McCall’s editor Koslow bore witness.
Magnolia Gold might have been born Maggie Goldfarb in Fargo, N.D., but years in the magazine industry have polished her into an elegant Manhattanite who welcomes every day as chief tastemaker for Lady magazine. Sure, the somewhat staid women’s title could use a redesign, and that is exactly what Magnolia has planned when the word comes down from corporate that her beloved Lady is being transformed into Bebe, after popular, opinionated talk-show host Bebe Blake. Never mind that plus-sized, foulmouthed Bebe knows nothing about magazines, her addition is assumed to be an opportunity for the company to “mint money” and Magnolia is summarily demoted to a smaller office where she is called upon to execute Bebe’s vision, even if that includes an NRA-friendly cover shot that alienates the readership. The capricious Bebe is an unprofessional nightmare who shows up drunk to her own launch party and at one point tries to seduce a young male intern, but she is also capable of big-hearted surprise gestures, such as when she “gives” British actor Hugh Grant to Magnolia for her birthday. And as difficult as Magnolia’s position is, it is her oily CEO Jock Flanagan who really gives her trouble—ultimately firing her after she rejects his adulterous advances. Our unemployed heroine is then left to ponder her future as she fights for money owed her by her former corporate overlords, while simultaneously navigating her way through the tricky waters of dating. Perched on the sidelines, she then has a perfect view of the bittersweet dissolution of Lady/Bebe, and is forced to choose between the lesser of two evils when both Jock and Bebe call on her to testify in competing lawsuits against each other. Koslow’s zippy prose ably captures the manic intensity and not-always-glamorous world of New York magazines—even if classy Magnolia and her so-so love life are a bit of a snooze. Far more intriguing is the flawed maverick Bebe.
Breezy glimpse into the behind-the-scenes shenanigans of modern celebrity culture and the women’s-magazine business.Pub Date: April 19, 2007
ISBN: 0-399-15415-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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