Rating: 
Summary: Depressing...a waste of time
Review: Reading the book was like being forced to live in the minds of two definitive losers...one more boring and insecure than the last. In the end, it depressed me so much, I couldn't even get through the last 100 pages. That's right, I read about 250 pages of this self-indulgent nonsense without discovering so much as one character arc...flat, uninspired drivel. Don't be swayed by the premise...If I had read the reviews, I wouldn't have wasted my time.
Rating: 
Summary: A Sparkling Satire And A Nuanced Exploration of Friendship
Review: Schwarz has written a witty, biting, and page-turning satire on ambition, envy, and success. She's also penned a deft and touching portrait of a friendship and the forces that corrode it. Funny yet sad, sharp yet heartfelt, the book is distinguished by rich exploration of character, surgically accurate observation, and great style. It's enormously entertaining and moving--and thought provoking.
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: Redemption in the age of Consumerism
Review: Schwarz's novel "All is Vanity" places her on the chart of great classy writers. This novel is a modern interpretation of the notion of Redemption in an age where everything is open to interpretation. And a vision of what it means to really be 'creative' while surrounded by hypocricy and rampant consumerism. Having read "Drowning Ruth," and, now, "All is Vanity" I can not wait to read the future works of Schwarz. Beautiful, involving, and engaging work defined by simple blocks that build slowly into a complex and meaningful reading of relationships.
Rating: 
Summary: Where is the ambition?
Review: Schwarz'z second novel was much different than the ambitious, entertaining novel Drowning Ruth was. It's bland until the last minute, when Letty's life unravels thanks to her best friend Margaret. This is not a book that you have to drag yourself thru, but you do wonder if it is actually the same author that produced this sophmore effort. All is Vanity is light and predictable. The characters are easy to relate to in some fashion, whether it be Margaret and her early mid life changes and failures, or Letty and her social climbing at all costs. This novel leaves me curious... what will Schwarz's third novel be like? Was this one a fluke? Or was Drowning Ruth a fluke?
Rating:
Summary: Excellent -- a funny, thoughtful book!
Review: This book is - in many ways -- very different from Schwarz's debut novel, *Drowning Ruth*, but it is equally excellent. Here, the setting is contemporary, and the tone - though laced with rue - is strongly satirical (in contrast to the historical setting and more earnest tone of the first book). For me, part of the pleasure in reading *All Is Vanity* lay in finding that an author I've loved in one genre writes masterfully in another, as well. But I also see in *All Is Vanity* some of the same themes that made *Drowning Ruth* so compelling. Both stories examine the potentially destructive power of envy and competition in close relationships between women. Though omnipresent, such feelings are famously hard for women to acknowledge directly. Schwarz takes them on, across the safe distance of a few generations in *Drowning Ruth*, and with the leavening of humor, in *All Is Vanity*. Schwarz's wit allows her to comment on (among other things) the "mommy wars" - the fierce and largely covert competition between women who define themselves mainly as mothers, and those whose identities are moored in careers. At the heart of Schwarz's book is a gentle warning to women of both persuasions: the quest for identity can founder on preoccupation with the world's regard, whether it be regard for one's children, one's work or one's possessions. However, there is nothing preachy about *All Is Vanity*; like Schwarz's first book, it is great fun to read.
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: 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.
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