Synopsis
Three faithful, middle-aged wives, who have been abandoned for "trophy wives"--younger, blonder, and sexier models--by their successful husbands, plot their sweet revenge. 100,000 first printing. Major ad/promo. Lit Guild Feat Alt. Tour.
Reviews
This empowering romp will delight and invigorate nearly any woman who's ever stewed over a bad breakup. In late-'80s Manhattan, three well-to-do, middle-aged divorcees are brought together by the suicide of a friend whose spouse, a bigoted Wall Street shark, abandoned her and later wed his ambitious protegee. Annie, a gentle, generous novelist, was dumped by her ad-exec husband for the woman who was their marriage counselor; Elise is a hard-drinking actress whose ex now dates a young artist/heiress; and Brenda is a compulsive overeater who was left by a crass salesman she had helped succeed in the retail biz. Calling themselves the First Wives Club, the three attend society functions together and seek methods of winning not only revenge but the nobler reward of justice for themselves and, posthumously, for their friend. As they stylishly, systematically and nonviolently foil the schemes of their callous former partners, they conquer their own weaknesses and find appreciative friends and lovers who complement rather than rule them. Goldsmith's glitzy, addictive and credible first novel is certain to raise smiles--not to mention a few hackles. Major ad/promo; Literary Guild featured alternate; author tour; movie rights to Paramount.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
``There ought to be some kind of retribution, some way to even the score....Let's make sure they pay a price.'' These are the words of a veritable Park Avenue Medea in Goldsmith's sharp, vitriolic, funny, and exceedingly commercial debut novel--all about what happens when three abandoned society wives get mad. The wives are a little slow to cut loose because, as one of them points out, ``We are a generation of masochists.'' Besides, their divorces have laid them low. Indeed, good girl Annie Paradise still thinks she loves her soon-to-be ex, advertising-whiz Aaron, who gambled away their Down's syndrome daughter's trust fund in a bum stock deal and shacks up with--of all people--Annie's old sex- therapist. Meanwhile, her Greenwich Village pal, Elise Atchison, a faded but still beautiful movie star and fantastically wealthy heiress, puts up with the promiscuity of her ``empty suit,'' Bill, for years until--to add insult to injury--he decides to walk with an anorexically thin, cocaine-snorting performance artist. And Brenda, the wise-cracking former wife of crass, appliance-peddling millionaire Morty the Madman, takes solace in cookies and pies. But then the girls get together for lunch at Le Cirque and determine to see to it that there's justice for first wives. Their goals? ``Morty broke...Bill castrated, and Aaron abandoned''--most of which they accomplish with the help of Elise's dough, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and a US senator. Along the way, they find themselves new beaux, laughs, tears, and vastly improved lives. Poor Medea never had it so good, nor do most real, down-to- earth first wives. But this is fantasy, with warm, cuddly female characters and larger-than-life, utterly villainous men. Moreover, the novel mainlines into a vein of pure bile--which can't help but produce heady effects on those millions of women who know exactly what Goldsmith's talking about. (Film rights sold to Paramount.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Annie, Elise, and Brenda are all good wives who have helped their husbands achieve success. Now that their men are at the pinnacle, they find themselves dumped for younger, sleeker "trophy wives." So they band together to form the "First Wives Club" for the purpose of seeing justice done. There are obvious problems with this first novel. For one thing, the husbands are the kind of guys you love to hate and the younger women are all immature and selfish. The first wives may have their problems (drinking, overeating, and so on) but they are warm, likable characters, unlike their rotten spouses. Despite all this, it's still easy to cheer when the men reap their just rewards, and the first wives find love, happiness, and success. Money, sex, drugs, and revenge make for a heady mixture sure to be popular in any general fiction collection. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/1/91; Literary Guild alternate; movie rights to Paramount.
- Marilyn Jordan, Keiser Coll . Lib., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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