Rich and Pretty
A Novel
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3.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A sharp, insightful portrait of how the relationship between two best friends changes when they are no longer coming of age but learning how to live adult lives, set against a backdrop of moneyed New York City
Meet Sarah and Lauren. Rich and pretty, respectively. They first met twenty years ago at a tony Manhattan private school (Sarah the Queen Bee and Lauren the new kid, of course), and have been inseparable ever since. Best friends through thick and thin, high school and college, first jobs and first loves, the growing pains of their twenties and the settling down of their thirties.
But come to think of it, can you still call them best friends if they don’t see each other that often, don’t really know what to say to each other anymore, and are living completely different lives? Lauren is single and working in publishing, deflecting her parents’ worries and questions about her life and future in New York City by trying not to think about it herself; Sarah’s engaged with wedding planning and charity work taking the place of a job. Both friends envy certain aspects of each other’s lives, and are privately horrified by other parts-and their linguistic dance-arounds to avoid those topics of conversation are masterful.
With impeccable style, biting humor, and a keen observational eye, Rich and Pretty looks at what happens when the friendships we form in childhood change and adapt as our lives shift from school to work, from first crushes to breakups to weddings, and captures the way in which the bonds of friendship remain strong even when our paths and circumstances diverge.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Alam's debut is a sweet yet cutting exploration of the bonds of friendship in competitive New York City. Sarah and Lauren have been best friends since high school, through college, love, jobs, and the realities of adult life. Lauren works as an associate editor for a publisher of cookbooks, is single, and pursues a carefree, on-the-go lifestyle that offers no prospect of settling down. Sarah, the daughter of a retired singer and a former advisor to the president, leads a charmed, career-free life. Recently engaged to pedestrian Dan, Sarah hopes the wedding will be a low-key affair but is anxious her socialite parents will keep that from happening. As a way to reconnect and keep her parents at bay, Sarah asks Lauren to be her maid of honor and help plan the wedding. Alam moves the story forward with seamless transitions from Sarah to Lauren's voice, punctuated by scenes of biting dialogue; however, the interplay of voices never serves as an integral part of the plot, and rambling takes over in sections. In the run-up to the wedding, the closeness Sarah was hoping to reignite looks forever extinguished when Lauren misbehaves on a bachelorette trip. As Sarah's life moves forward, will she come to realize that there is nothing wrong with growing up, even if that means growing apart from Lauren? With astute descriptions of how values, tastes, desires, and ambitions change over two decades, Alam's tale of a divergent friendship smartly reflects the trial and error nature of finding a mate and deciding how to grow up.
