Prospect Park West

June 1, 2009
Former New York
magazine “Mating” columnist Sohn zeroes in on the more-fertile-than-thou crowd in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood in her vinegary latest (after My Old Man
). Like a Grand Hotel
for the yuppie set, the lives of moody, angry, dissatisfied mommies intersect on the playgrounds and co-ops of their overpriced hood. Among them, Lizzie, whose lesbian proclivities mask her loneliness; Rebecca, whose libidoless spouse prefers his role as dad over husband; Karen, a social-climbing conniver; and Melora, a former Manhattanite whose psychiatric maladies are as pathetic as they are numerous. The gals in this comedy of bad manners are burned out, bitchy and beyond salvation as they maneuver to be noticed and loved. Meanwhile, there’s more name-dropping than in an edition of Page Six, and while Sohn is obviously intent on skewering the annoying urban mommy stereotype, 400 pages is a stretch for material that’s been blogged to death. There are moments of brutal honesty, but they’re far too few to allow readers to muster an ounce of sympathy for a crew of caricatures so broadly drawn and sadly conceived.

Starred review from November 30, 2009
Kate Reading strikes exactly the right note in performing this razor-sharp satire of self-obsessed social climbers in trendy Park Slope: she reads each character's point of view with absolute earnestness, truthfully conveying their cattiness, pettiness, and outrage when their needs aren't met. She deftly creates distinctive voices for each character—from jaded, throaty drama queen Melora to nasal, whiny Karen, from an Australian celebrity actor to a Swedish nanny—always sounding utterly authentic and never missing a beat. Her masterful performance makes this scathingly entertaining novel a must-listen on audio. A Simon & Schuster hardcover (Reviews, June 1).