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Mrs. : a novel  Cover Image Book Book

Mrs. : a novel / Caitlin Macy.

Macy, Caitlin, (author.).

Summary:

In the well-heeled milieu of New York's Upper East Side, coolly elegant Philippa Lye is the woman no one can stop talking about. Despite a shadowy past, Philippa has somehow married the scion of the last family-held investment bank in the city. And although her wealth and connections put her in the center of this world, she refuses to conform to its gossip-fueled culture. Then, into her precariously balanced life, come two women: Gwen Hogan, a childhood acquaintance who uncovers an explosive secret about Philippa's single days, and Minnie Curtis, a newcomer whose vast fortune and frank revelations about a penurious upbringing in Spanish Harlem put everyone on alert. When Gwen's husband, a heavy-drinking, obsessive prosecutor in the US Attorney's Office, stumbles over the connection between Philippa's past and the criminal investigation he is pursuing at all costs, this insulated society is forced to confront the rot at its core and the price it has paid to survive into the new millennium.

Record details

  • ISBN: 9780316434157 (hardcover) :
  • ISBN: 0316434159
  • Physical Description: 343 pages ; 25 cm
  • Edition: First edition.
  • Publisher: New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2018.
Subject: Upper class > Fiction.
New York (N.Y.) > Fiction.
Genre: Domestic fiction.

Available copies

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  • 0 current holds with 0 total copies.
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Location Call Number / Copy Notes Barcode Shelving Location Holdable? Status Due Date
Fraser Lake Public Library AFTPB FIC MAC (Text) 35195000277613 Main Floor - Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Headingley Municipal Library MAC (Text) 36440000271129 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Kitimat Public Library Mac (Text) 32665002100503 Fiction Volume hold Available -
Mackenzie Public Library MAC (Text) 35192000310437 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Pouce Coupe Public Library F MAC (Text) 35333000351035 Fiction Volume hold Available -
Tumbler Ridge Public Library AF MACY (Text) TRL23040 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Erickson F MAC (Text) 35419002793900 Adult Fiction Volume hold Available -
Gibsons Public Library FIC MACY (Text) 30886001049317 Adult Fiction Hardcover Volume hold Available -
Williams Lake Branch MAC (Text) 33923005920339 General Fiction Volume hold Available -

  • Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2017 December #1
    *Starred Review* Gwen Hogan and her husband, Dan, a U.S. attorney, do not fit in with the elite families at St. Timothy's preschool in Manhattan, where other mothers often mistake Gwen for a nanny at pick-up time. However, Gwen is not a total stranger to the other St. Tim's mothers. She knew Philippa Lye, for one, while they grew up in Massachusetts, back before Philippa's modeling career and her marriage to banker Jed Skinker. In January, a new child joins the school, and her mother, Minnie Curtis, is set on befriending Philippa to further her own secret agenda. Soon Dan discovers a link between Philippa's past and his current investigation into a criminal he couldn't prosecute years earlier. Macy (The Fundamentals of Play, 2000; Spoiled, 2009) creates a masterful portrait of marriage, ambition, betrayal, power, and secrets. She tells the stories of the Hogan, Skinker, and Curtis families from varied perspectives, building the tension to heartbreaking heights and grappling with the long-term ripples of trauma and characters' failures to one another throughout the complex and impossible-to-put-down novel. Readers will remember the three families long after the last pages. Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.
  • Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2018 February #2
    Congratulations! You've been invited to take an inside look at the most exclusive preschool in Manhattan. Two families figure prominently in the whispered gossip hissing among the mothers at St. Timothy's: the Skinkers, Jed and Philippa, he the scion of the last family-owned investment bank in New York, she beautiful, detached, often drunk; and the Curtises, John and Minnie, a new family with shiny new money. On the other hand, no one can ever remember the Hogans' names—Dan is an assistant district attorney, i.e. a working stiff, and Gwen stays home with their daughter, Mary. But Gwen was friends with Philippa's sister back home in small-town Massachusetts, which gives the two an odd affinity for each other—which might help or might hurt when Jed Skinker and John Curtis become the focus of an investigation at the DA's office, led by Dan Hogan. Macy (Spoiled, 2009, etc.) knows just how to nail the status anxieties of the rich; her people are ultraprivileged but ins ecure, constantly comparing themselves against each other. Minnie, the new mother, doesn't quite fit in with the other St. Timothy's women at the all-important morning drop-off: "Despite the fact that points in this town had long ago ceased being given for grooming or comportment, Minnie Curtis' hair was blown out and styled, her clothes smart and expensively tailored, rather than expensively draped and drawstringed. Was that an actual matching skirt and jacket she was wearing—a suit?" The horror! The perspective rotates among Philippa, Minnie, and Gwen as well as their husbands, Philippa's 7-year-old daughter, Laura, and a group of other mothers who form a kind of Greek chorus reminiscent of Big Little Lies. It's all very stylized and entertaining, and if the characters never spring fully to life inside their expensively casual outfits and two-story entrance halls, that feels almost beside the point. Reading this sharply observed novel about New York's wealthier deni z ens is doubtless more enjoyable than it would be to actually join their crowd. Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved.
  • Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2017 November #2

    Philippa Lye left her unsavory single life behind when she married wealthy New York City banker Jed Skinker. She is the envy of every woman of the New York elite. In their view she seems to have achieved perfection—beauty, wealth, a good marriage, and social standing. Yet Philippa doesn't appear to care about any of that. She is somehow damaged by the events of her past and unconnected to the reality of her present. As happens in very small social circles, Philippa's past catches up with her. In a very public effort to resolve her conflict, the world shifts around her with surprising results. Macy (The Fundamentals of Play; Spoiled) creates a delightful mix of characters whose circumstances bring them together while their motivations keep them apart. She intersperses the catty asides of the society ladies with the musings of the banker and the ambitions of the district attorney. Social critique and star-crossed fates mingle here. VERDICT Recommended for readers of general fiction.—Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Providence

    Copyright 2017 Library Journal.
  • Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2017 December #1

    Macy (The Fundamentals of Play) penetrates the gossipy lives of well-off parents in New York City's Upper East Side in this fresh take on the society novel. Gwen Hogan, Philippa Lye, and Minnie Curtis are all married to powerful men and send their children to the prestigious St. Timothy's preschool. Gwen, married to a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office, recently moved to Manhattan and is uncomfortable living in New York City. Philippa, married to the owner of an investment bank, seems both effortlessly stylish and aloof. Minnie, the wife of a wealthy financier, takes an unapologetic pleasure in her financial security that makes the other mothers uncomfortable. The three women bond over school gossip and the difficulties of parenthood, unaware that Gwen's husband is conducting an insider trading investigation that implicates both Philippa and Minnie's husbands. Macy switches perspective each chapter, telling her story from the points of view of protagonists, peripheral characters, and even Greek-style choruses. The attention to behavioral detail, especially when seen through the eyes of Philippa's young daughter Laura, is piercing and honest. Ultimately, a thesis emerges about the simplicity and selfishness of human nature. (Feb.)

    Copyright 2017 Publishers Weekly.

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