Mrs.
A Novel
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3.0 • 9 Ratings
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
In the well-heeled milieu of New York's Upper East Side, coolly elegant Philippa Lye is the woman no one can stop talking about. Despite a shadowy past, Philippa has somehow married the scion of the last family-held investment bank in the city. And although her wealth and connections put her in the center of this world, she refuses to conform to its gossip-fueled culture.
Then, into her precariously balanced life, come two women: Gwen Hogan, a childhood acquaintance who uncovers an explosive secret about Philippa's single days, and Minnie Curtis, a newcomer whose vast fortune and frank revelations about a penurious upbringing in Spanish Harlem put everyone on alert.
When Gwen's husband, a heavy-drinking, obsessive prosecutor in the US Attorney's Office, stumbles over the connection between Philippa's past and the criminal investigation he is pursuing at all costs, this insulated society is forced to confront the rot at its core and the price it has paid to survive into the new millennium.
Macy has written a modern-day House of Mirth, not for the age of railroads and steel but of hedge funds and overnight fortunes, of scorched-earth successes and abiding moral failures. A brilliant portrait of love, betrayal, fate and chance, Mrs. marries razor-sharp social critique and page-turning propulsion into an unforgettable tapestry of the way we live in the 21st Century.
"Mrs. could be the next Big Little Lies."-EW
"Macy skewers power parents in this entertaining, sharp-eyed portrayal of privilege and it's price"-People Magazine
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Caitlin Macy's sprawling novel is set in a well-worn battleground of the Manhattan elite: a pricey private preschool. The web of secrets surrounding St. Peter's is dense; shared pasts cast long shadows during pickup, and playdates turn into opportunities for gossip to run wild. Macy subtly and methodically draws her main characters into each other's orbits and leads them toward a shocking climax that rips open old and new wounds. Her acerbic dialogue, sharp characterizations, and shrewd observations of life among the 1% make this book a Bonfire of the Vanities for the Big Little Lies era.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Macy (The Fundamentals of Play) penetrates the gossipy lives of well-off parents in New York City's Upper East Side in this fresh take on the society novel. Gwen Hogan, Philippa Lye, and Minnie Curtis are all married to powerful men and send their children to the prestigious St. Timothy's preschool. Gwen, married to a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office, recently moved to Manhattan and is uncomfortable living in New York City. Philippa, married to the owner of an investment bank, seems both effortlessly stylish and aloof. Minnie, the wife of a wealthy financier, takes an unapologetic pleasure in her financial security that makes the other mothers uncomfortable. The three women bond over school gossip and the difficulties of parenthood, unaware that Gwen's husband is conducting an insider trading investigation that implicates both Philippa and Minnie's husbands. Macy switches perspective each chapter, telling her story from the points of view of protagonists, peripheral characters, and even Greek-style choruses. The attention to behavioral detail, especially when seen through the eyes of Philippa's young daughter Laura, is piercing and honest. Ultimately, a thesis emerges about the simplicity and selfishness of human nature.
