Rating: 
Summary: Wickedly Engaging!
Review: This book was given to me by a friend who knew I would enjoy it - and was she right! From the moment I opened the book, I haven't been able to put it down - each page is better than the last. The characters are wonderfully witty and wicked at the same time. They are people you want to know intimately (and probably did in college), but are afraid to ask what they did last night (when you desperately want to know).This book is fantastic and a must read for everyone that is making their way in the world. You won't be sorry!
Rating: 
Summary: what a great young author
Review: Her writing is fresh. It is amazing a woman can write a man's voice so well. Every generation-xer must read this book. It is a great enjoyable read and well worth every minute. Go buy it now!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: As mediocre as its characters
Review: Macy is definitely talented at writing narrative, and I look forward to future efforts from her, but this novel left me with all of the emotional and intellectual reaction that I would have from reading a pamphlet in a dentist's office describing a toothbrush. I'd liken The Fundamentals of Play to a written exercise most us probably had in high school - writing a piece in the style of another author, and people rightly compare this work to Fitzgerald and some others. I don't much have a problem with that conceptually, although a unique style is more interesting if it's good, but Macy's characters and themes are uniformly vague and not engaging to the reader. This novel had potential to be better than it is, but the story and its characters needed more dimension.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable. A recycled Gatsby
Review: Based on the reviews, I picked up this book expecting a combination of "The Rules of Attraction" and "The great Gatsby." Instead, I found a rambling, predictable story of privileged twenty-somethings taking drunken road trips. I could not connect with any of the characters and found myself absolutely unsympathetic to their struggles. In short, I was bored after the first five pages and had to force myself to continue on through the last page.
Rating:
Summary: a-macy-ing debut!
Review: Stick with this book and you'll be richly rewarded. There are parts of it that seemed to drag on but this Caitlin Macy shows signs of being a superb writer. Two of her characters - George Lenhart and Kate Goodenow are engrossing. The scenes dealing with George's roomate's girlfriend towards the end of the book are worthy of Hitchcock. I recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I am loving it!
Review: I am surprised at the negative responses to this book. I picked up this book a few days ago and have yet to put it down! Ms. Macy's language is extremely clever, compelling, and insightful- few writers have the ability to connect with the way "mental meanderers" really think. I am astonished when it happens, and have been more than rewarded in this novel. I think it's terrific.
Rating:
Summary: DULL
Review: I felt that this book was quite boring. I read it wondering when the plot would be revealed, when the story would start & when it would like up to my expectations! While the author has Manhattan life among the young & rich down, she lacks the writing to keep the reader interested. Even the style of her writing seemed like she was trying to mimick other famous authors. Dissapointing book.
Rating: 
Summary: a disappointment
Review: I forced myself through the first 75 pages and gave up in disgust. The dialogue doesn't give the reader enough to go on. I found myself continually trying to fill in the blanks. It took too much effort to read this book. The reviews were misleading.
Rating:
Summary: Mediocrity Reigns
Review: Despite the drubbing Ms. Macy recieved from the NYT Book Review, I felt compelled to give this book about the self-absorbed, fading clan of "wasps" (that Fitzgerald so lyrically captured decades ago) a chance. Ms. Macy's problem is not as one reviewer puts it her subject matter, but her inability to convey the characters in an interesting way. In literature or in pulp the greatest crime is to bore the reader. Ms. Macy bores to excess. In making vapidity a theme of her characters, she has not invested any "colorful" characters to counterbalance. This is the kind of novel that bored wealthy house wives in Connecticut can say they read, but in actuality they will not have gotten past page 10...
Rating:
Summary: The latest bright young thing...
Review: Much like Melissa Bank's "Girls Guide to Hunting & Fishing," this book simply proves how out of touch the publishing industry has become. Like some other reviewers, I found the dialogue silly and contrived, the characters unbelievable, and the first 50 pages a bore. Granted, I don't know much the lives of the New York super-rich, but how many people do? Seems like rather a limited market. (Of course, I don't know anything about the lives of the British super-rich either, but Richard Mason's "The Drowning People" was well-written enough that it didn't matter.) I actually laughed out loud when Cara announced that she was pregnant. Welcome to Plot Convenience Playhouse! Who didn't see this one coming? Personally, I've got to wonder what Macy's MFA classmates--the ones who aren't selling--are writing.
| 
