Lucinda Rosenfeld

I got off to a slow start with this one; in the first chapter, the relentless relating of backstory in a flat, dry, third-person voice annoyed me so much I almost didn't continue. But then I picked it up again the next day and started really enjoying it.

There have been quite a few novels and articles over the last few years about "Park Slope moms." I honestly cannot even picture their world or sympathize with their concerns. But Karen's concerns about her own attitudes toward race and class really struck a chord with me. I found the constant internal observations about her own hypocrisy spot-on, relatable, and funny; I didn't find her particularly unlikable or annoying, just incredibly blind to her own privilege, which is really the point of the book, I think.

Where it fell apart for me is when she starts doing stupid, risky, and even illegal things without getting caught or suffering any major consequences. She steals someone's mail and uses it to transfer her child to another school without even considering that the person whose mail she's stolen might be known to the school (and they are! And the office doesn't notice!). The PTA president, who is really concerned about where people live, hasn't checked the new family's address and discovered that IT'S HER OWN ADDRESS. Karen texts the guy she's having an affair with and mixes personal comments in with her work-related email (presumably from her work email account) and doesn't get discovered. She loses a major donor after spending the evening flirting with a fairly minor donor and isn't even talked to about it. And then when it all comes out, nobody presses charges or divorces her or fires her. She basically goes back to life as it was, with new friends and a better attitude. The only consequence she suffers is guilt.
And maybe that's the point--that's also the only consequence she suffers for her classist,
racist hypocrisy.

I've read reviews that call this book "hilarious" or "skewering." I thought it was more of a wry poke in the stomach than a hilarious skewering; maybe that's because I live a thousand miles from Karen's world physically, and a couple million perceptually. But even though the inequality curve isn't quite as steep where I live, many of us are still very aware of it, and are conscious and conflicted about our own place on it. That made this an uncomfortable read in many ways--but that's not necessarily a bad thing.… (mais)