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Rating: 
Summary: Diabolically funny and bittersweet
Review: All is Vanity, by Christina Schwarz (also the author of Drowning Ruth, an Oprah pick), is a story about two life-long female friends. Margaret, who fancies herself the Batman to Letty's Robin, quits her day job to write a novel. She figures she can crank out a good book in about year. Not surprisingly, she finds writing to be a tougher gig than she'd supposed. Beset by writer's block, she'll do just about anything to avoid work. Diabolically funny and bittersweet, the book is, most impressively, very well written. I found myself repeatedly re-reading paragraphs to savor the language.
Debra Hamel -- book-blog reviews
Author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
Rating: 
Summary: Drowning in Vanity
Review: As Margaret, our narrator, ruins several lives in her efforts to get her novel published, it becomes quite clear that All is Vanity would never have earned publication without the success of Drowning Ruth. While Ruth is suspenseful, I had difficulty even getting through Vanity. The characters are annoying and nearly impossible to empathize with, and become more and more despicable with each passing page. Wholly unsatisfying.
Rating: 
Summary: Lifestyles of the Rich and Fatuous
Review: Before I start, I'd like to clarify one niggling detail: I suspect that All is Vanity is not Christina Schwarz' second novel but her first. It's the semi-autobiographical ("write what you know!") effort that she resurrected after Drowning Ruth's (well-deserved) success. By adding a new front-end (a quote from Ecclesiastes plus a description of the protagonist, at age seven, carving Greek temples out of soap) and a zippy title, Schwarz managed to transform a dust-gathering manuscript into a respectable novel. All is Vanity contains two separate but intertwined plots. The focus of the first 2/3 of the book is writers' block, a malaise that's afflicted all of us. That section of the book is crammed full with lots of details that exude verisimilitude, although the premise-that Margaret, our protagonist, would quit her job (never quit the day job) to become a novelist when she has only a vague notion of plot or character doesn't feel quite real. Moreover, the snippets that emerge from Margaret's pen don't suggest that she has any talent for writing. However, the description of writers' block is dead on, and the tricks that Margaret devises to get herself unblocked and to prevent herself from obsessing about her lethargy are depicted with excruciating detail. The last 100 pages describe the efforts of Letty, Margaret's long-time friend, to ingratiate herself with the Los Angeles high rollers for the purpose of furthering her husband's career. As one familiar with both the California job market and real estate prices, I had a hard time accepting that a job in a museum would pay enough for Letty and her husband Michael even to consider buying a house they couldn't afford, furnishing it with only the best, opting for private schools and silly enrichment classes for the kids, and throwing parties for the purpose of impressing fly-by-night acquaintances. (If Schwarz had transitioned Michael into a higher-paying career-say, investment banking or venture capital-I might not have had to suspend disbelief. And Schwarz could have created some truly unctuous characters among Michael's associates. But no matter.) Reading about the lives of the Rich and Fatuous is the most entertaining part of the book. After forcing myself through the first 250 pages, I was only too ready to settle into the Italian chaises with the pink, orange, and lime green bands and watch as Letty and Michael racked up the toys. With Letty maxing out the credit cards and ultimately resorting to criminal activity to deal with the mounting debts, the outcome is inevitable. (Schwarz unnecessarily underscores the hapless fate of this caught-up-in-the-lifestyle couple by throwing in an investment disaster and termites). The only mystery is that Margaret is somehow blamed for causing Letty's problems when her only sin was to serve as a member of the chorus urging Letty and Michael into a life of untenable excess. It's hard not to feel sorry for Letty when her freeway to fabulousness turns out to be a road that dead ends in Winnemucca. Final score: three stars. Characters inconsistent, plot implausible, but the writing was captivating. And if no one else has claimed those Italian chaises, I'll take them.
Rating:
Summary: Original story, interesting characters
Review: I'm glad to see Christina Schwartz getting some accolades, as I feel she is a great writer. While I enjoyed her first book, Drowning Ruth, I felt this book was even better. The story is gripping and pulls you in from the start. It was interesting to see the two friends lives affect each other in this story, and it was told in such an expertly written way that you can't help feeling for both sets of characters. The story is original and I enjoyed it. You will too.
Rating:
Summary: Depressing...a waste of time
Review: I'm so glad I didn't see the big O (Oprah!) on the cover of this one, or I probably wouldn't have picked it up. Instead, I checked it out on a whim at the library. All is Vanity is extremely well written. It alternates between the viewpoints of two characters - women who were friends since they were children. The letters are entertaining to read. The tone shifts subtly as the plot becomes urgent toward the end of the book. And things keep moving all the way to the end. Even when you've got only about 3 millimeters' worth of pages left to read, the story is far from reaching a conclusion and you're wondering WHAT is going to happen. The ending is a bit different. I wouldn't call it weak. I enjoyed the book from cover to cover. It was thoroughly entertaining to read, and also had many great morals as a bonus. I can't wait to read more by this author!
Rating: 
Summary: Sometimes disturbing, always entertaining
Review: Schwarz has written another solid novel. Her writing is clear and succient and her way of shifting the point of view adds much to the story. Letty's story is sometimes tragic, sometimes hilarious and I laughed out loud in several parts. I did think Margaret came on too strong much of the time and I was unable to muster an ounce of sympathy for her. Not as strong as Drowning Ruth, but overall, a good read.
Rating: 
Summary: good beginning, strange middle, weird ending
Review: Schwarz is no doubt a fairly good writer - the book was well and interestingly written until about 2/3 of the way.
She knows how to draw realistic, likeable and interesting women but she has no feel for the male characters. Ted comes across as just a numbers cruncher - surely an intelligent woman like Margaret cannot be satisfied living with this boring lump. As for Michael, he is so one-dimensional as to be totally unbelievable and he has no backbone whatsoever. Schwarz's male characters seem to exist as cardboard cutouts in the background somewhere and their only purpose is to render one-liners to their spouses here and there to make the story more believable.
I found it even more unlikely that the very bright Letty could live with and admire someone of this calibre.
I did enjoy the use of e-mails and could really "see" Letty through her writing of them. She seems like the kind of person I would admire and want to be friendly with.
Schwarz is very moralistic and the story had a weird and strangely unsatisfying ending. I would not rush out to buy her next book.
Rating:
Summary: Boooring!!!!
Review: This book was awful. Despite being hopelessly bored for well over 100 pages, I pushed on through, thinking I would be rewarded at the end. Nope. After rambling on and on about Margaret's writer's block and Letty's bad financial decisions and "Money Pit" mishaps, Schwarz dedicated just a couple of pages to the climax, if you can even call it that. I don't expect happy endings in everything I read, but I expect the ending to at least be thought provoking. Schwarz definitely missed the mark here.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent writer, but reading this book was like torture
Review: This book was so depressing and the main characters were so frustrating (one is an egomaniac, the other becomes a self-destructive idiot). With both of the main characters headed for disaster, I could barely bring myself to read a chapter or two a week, and often wondered if I should even bother finishing the book. If I had read the reviews here, I would have known better.
Rating:
Summary: All is Vanity
Review: This is the first book I read by Christina Schwarz and it will probably be my last. I thought it started out great but then went downhill to a very disturbing ending. Normally I can't put a book down and am disappointed to finish it but not in this case. It took me several weeks to make myself finish it and now that I have I wished I hadn't. Christina Scwarz is a great writer and I would have enjoyed a much lighter piece of fluff.
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