July 5, 2010
Brooke and Julian Alter are a happy couple—she's a nutritionist working two jobs to support them, he's a talented musician with a low-level recording contract—but when Julian hits it big in The Devil Wears Prada author Weisberger's not-ready-for-prime-time latest, their marriage wobbles under the strain of fame. Suddenly Julian is traveling nonstop, a pawn of his manager and publicist, and Brooke tries to balance her career with her desire to back him up. Paparazzi stalk their every move (believable in his case, less so in hers); her job is threatened by her repeated absences to attend events like Julian's Grammy appearance; and their shared giddiness dissipates as they are divided—physically and emotionally—as a couple. It takes many dozens of pages and a number of by-the-way announcements that might have ratcheted up the tension if they'd been part of the story to get Brooke and Julian into a crisis, unsurprising though that crisis may be. Weisberger has insightful takes about the price of success in our celebrity-obsessed culture, but Brooke and Julian hew too closely to type to make their struggles sympathetic.
August 1, 2010
In her fourth novel, the author of The Devil Wears Prada (2003) considers what it would be like if your husband became a rock star. The short answer: not that great.
Everyone agrees Brooke and Julian are the real thing: madly in love and mutually supportive. Theirs is a marriage that could weather anything, except maybe the toxic storm of modern celebrity. Julian, a singer-songwriter, is in the final stages of recording his album for Sony. He's still an unknown but has a following in Manhattan, which includes his wife Brooke, who first fell in love watching him sing at a dive bar. She works 60 hours a week as a nutritionist (at a hospital and part time at an elite girl's school) all to help Julian achieve his dream. Then fame comes like an avalanche. A Tonight Show appearance pushes his single up the charts, and what follows—more TV appearances, a Vanity Fair cover, endless traveling, starlet photo ops—is just the stuff to weaken a marriage. Brooke becomes a nag, and meek Julian, manipulated by his sleazy manager, is transformed into an overworked brat (albeit one with a superior wardrobe). Brooke can't take time off from work, so they spend weeks apart, and when they're together, everything between them seems different. Then come the vicious articles in the gossip rags, insinuating there is trouble in their marriage, which unsurprisingly brings trouble to their union. The novel has difficulty convincing the reader that any sane woman would behave as Brooke does—refusing to take a sabbatical from her 60-hour work week, passing on a romantic Italian vacation, stubbornly refusing to live it up with her husband. By the end she realizes she is as much to blame for their relationship's collapse as those compromising photos of Julian and a floozy at the Chateau Marmont. Only a miracle, or maybe some simple compromise, can get Brooke and Julian back together.
A sudsy insider's look at the celebrity machine—and the cruel world it creates.
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August 1, 2010
In her fourth novel, the incisive, trend-focused author of The Devil Wears Prada (2003) explores the effect of fame on a young married couple. When Brooke first comes across singer Julian in a dive in Manhattan, shes entranced by his voice. She starts to attend his weekly shows until a mediocre blind date leads to an unexpected meeting. It isnt long before the two fall in love and marry. Brooke, a nutritionist with aspirations of starting her own company, works two jobs to support Julians musical ambitions, which pays off when he lands a recording contract. The record label sets up a showcase just before the albums release, and Julians performance attracts the attention of a scout for Jay Leno, who invites Julian to play on his show. That performance turns Julian into an overnight sensation, but both he and Brooke find themselves wholly unprepared for superstardom, which includes stalking paparazzi, tabloid smear articles, and flirtatious fame seekers. An absorbing, thoroughly entertaining read about the ins and outs and ups and downs of life as a celebrity.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)