Elements of Style

Now if you are an English major, you might think I was referring to The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. But you would be wrong.

I am referring to Elements of Style by Wendy Wasserstein. The novel, by the playwright. I read it recently and found it to be a good use of a few hours. Not really chick lit, it is more like a comedy of manners. The upper crust of New York society. Now, I know this is fiction, but given that Wasserstein lived in New York, it is probably more of a roman a clef, so I figure it must pretty accurately describe these peoples' lives.

And what lives they are. The "right" people have four houses: summer, winter, vacation and beach, or something like that. New York, Aspen, the Caribbean, and somewhere else, Maine perhaps.

They have their pilates instructors come to their house, the wives don't have jobs, yet need personal assistants anyway. They are all rail thin and uber-fashion conscious. One woman's favorite snack is four soybeans and a chocolate chip.

But of course, they aren't any happier than we are. Or any different.

Would be a good read while you are taking the private jet from your home in Manhattan to your home in Miami.

P.S. did you know that White, of Strunk and White, was E.B. White, of Charlotte's Web fame? I didn't.

P.P.S. Shouldn't it be playwrite instead of playwright?