Gotham Diaries
A Novel
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A hilarious first novel that provides a peek into the world of the super-rich, super-connected African Americans in Manhattan.
Lauren is trying to be an independent woman, starting her own documentary film company, but it's difficult when you're married to Ed Thomas, one of the wealthiest African-American businessmen in the country -- and particularly when he seems to have a roving eye. Manny is an up-and-coming gay real estate agent who arrived in Manhattan from Alabama with only the clothes on his back. He's made his way to the top of his profession--yet he still wants more. Tandy is one of the "ladies who lunch" -- but she's desperate to reinvent herself and find a new source of cash flow.
As we follow these three and other characters in this compelling first novel, we see the fascinating world of New York City's upper-crust African American society with all their scandals, foibles and skeletons in the closet revealed.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lauren Thomas, Wharton graduate, size-four beauty and rising director on the Style Channel, wants to be admired as herself, not just as the wife of Ed Thomas, billionaire baron of New York African-American society. The authors know whereof they speak, being married, respectively, to filmmaker Spike Lee and former Knicks player and ESPN commentator Greg Anthony. If Stephen Carter was the Henry James of old black money with The Emperor of Ocean Park, the Lee/Anthony team is the Edith Wharton of new black money. As Lauren rises in selfhood, her best friends tumble: Manny Marks, the gay realtor who grew up dirt-poor, and widow Tandy Brooks, who at age 51 is dethroned as the duchess of philanthropy because her despised husband left her in debt. Vicious, funny, juicy, with lots of antic real estate scenes, the story is driven by a plot in which Manny and Tandy collude to swindle Lauren and Ed. The dual authorship sometimes shows at the seams, with Tandy "cocoa-brown" on one page and "caramel" on another; dialogue drags, and brand names crowd the pages. But the insider authority carries the day. . This should have a strong start out the gate, with plenty of media attention.
