Better Homes and Husbands

Rating:
Summary: A Rare and Delightful Read
Review: Books that explore class difference in America are usually heavy, depressing and pedantic. Better Homes and Husbands is a delightful departure. Set in one of the great old apartment buildings on Park Avenue in New York City, the novel takes us into the lives of those who live there and those who work there, from the baroness in the penthouse all the way down to the illegal Guatemalans hidden in a bedroom in one of the grand apartments.
Valerie Leff has accomplished that rare and wonderful possibility of fiction; to make us feel deeply the human condition, its sorrows and its dilemmas, and also to make us laugh, as when eight year old Madeline Sapphire, on a dare, bites the "chunky rectangular penis" of a Tiki statue, or an elderly wealthy man takes his turn running the elevator because the service people are on strike, much to the peril of the residents.
My own favorite chapters are the story of Sandra Payne, the daughter of a wealthy bond trader, who becomes pregnant by their long-time Jamaican chauffeur. Leff is brilliant in working out the relationships between the families in the building, and her resolution of the story of the black child born into a house where no black person could buy an apartment, is nothing less than brilliant.
I myself was born into an apartment house in the slums of St. Louis, at the polar opposite end of the social scale from Park Avenue penthouses. Never before have I read such a delightful, honest, and knowledgeable book about the great divide in America, seen from that other side where secrets are held close, and doormen protect the residents from the ways most of us live. I cannot recommend Better Homes and Husbands too highly.

Pat Schneider
Amherst, Massachusetts



Rating:
Summary: This Year's Must Read - A Great Summer Book!
Review: I didn't exactly grow up in the world (the haves and have mores) depicted in Better Homes and Husbands, but I grew up adjacent to it-certainly close enough to marvel at Valerie Ann Leff's ability to x-ray the lives and loves, illusions and delusions of a certain caste of moneyed New Yorkers who inhabit one of Park Avenue's storied addresses (albeit a fictional one).

Valerie's talent for observation is flawless, and her prose effortless. Her deftly drawn characters are compelling without exception. Taken together they make 980 Park Avenue a kaleidoscope of old money and new, power and fame, devastating lies and universal truths. In the end, the building becomes kind of a character itself, something to aspire to and something to escape from, a dream and a nightmare, a postcard from the past and a letter to the future.

Wherever you live now, Park Avenue or Pacoima, this book is one great summer read. You won't want to put it down, and you will never want it to end.

Rating:
Summary: A quick read.....
Review: Set in a luxurious Manhattan apartment building, this book spans thirty years and divulges the secrets of various residents. But this story is more of an ensemble piece, so the stories don't necessarily interconnect. In my opinion the author did have an ideal opportunity to achieve a sense of cohesion by utilizing the character of Vinnie. In the beginning of the book he is working as a doorman in the building and eventually makes his way into a position of prominence by becoming a major fashion designer. The author could have taken it a step further by having Vinnie eventually purchasing the building's penthouse, thus making the story a rags to riches tale, or the little guy overcoming obstacles. Instead the characters and the story remain in a state of flux.

However, I did thoroughly believe that the author had an insight to the often insulated world of Manhattan's Upper East Side and manages to create credible characters and plausible stories.


Rating:
Summary: Isabelle Allende of Park Avenue
Review: This book's vivid characters and rich subplots reminded me of Isabelle Allende's stories. Not a flippant "chick-lit" at all. Very entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable. I felt more like I was reading a story from "The New Yorker" than say, "People Magazine."

Rating:
Summary: A Charming Debut for Valerie Ann Leff
Review: Welcome to Manhattan's 980 Park Avenue where the rich and filthy rich reside. Don't be jealous, though, because they're not without their problems. They have their share of struggles, scandals and grief. As the poor are so fond of saying, "Money can't buy happiness." But let us not forget the retort of the rich, "It makes misery so much easier." Such is the case at 980 Park Avenue.

BETTER HOMES & HUSBANDS gives us an inside look at the lives of those who live and work in the building; those who are separated not only by walls of plaster and plywood but also by walls of class, society and snobbery. However, no wall is enough to keep them out of each other's lives completely. Their joys and their tragedies intermingle over the years and no one's business is as confidential as they'd like to pretend it is.

Take, for instance, Claudia and Madeline, girlhood friends who are as close as sisters but become separated due to a terrible tragedy. What starts out as a simple life and close friendship becomes hopelessly complicated as misunderstandings occur. Then there's Claudia's father, Dick Sapphire, who finds love for the second time and then has to adjust himself to a wife and a life so much different from what he had anticipated.

There's Vinnie, the elevator man, who leaves the building behind in what seems like misfortune only to find that it has led him to the greatest opportunity of his life. And let us not forget the Baroness Idabell Smith d'Alencon, a woman whose invitations are few and far between but coveted by every woman in the building. You'll also meet Angelita Somoza, an exquisite woman who has a never-ending procession of maids and nannies who seem to have no skills whatsoever for cleaning or childcare.

The stories in this book span the timeframe of 1970 to 2000 and the changes that occur in the lives of the residents and in society. The residents of 980 Park Avenue may know which stock to buy to increase their fortunes. They may know the designer from which to purchase an evening gown for the next society ball. The one thing they don't seem to be familiar with is the old adage that good fences make for good neighbors.

Valerie Ann Leff makes a charming debut with her first novel.

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