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Tuesday, June 3, 2014

A Very Good Life by Lynn Steward



This was a free download from Amazon. Dana is married to Brett and both of them seem to lead a very high profile lifestyle.  She works for B. Altman a very high end department store and her career is about to take a flying leap. Brett is a lawyer at a prestigious firm and has pinned all his hopes on making partner. Nothing has to get in the way of his ambition.

However all is not perfect in the marriage and cracks are beginning to appear. With something as simple as getting their Christmas tree which seemed to be a tradition with them both, Brett evades this tradition by pleading work. This is the first indication that Brett is living a lie because from this first evasion, all the others start. He knows how to manipulate Dana, alternatively giving in to her requests and when he doesn't being penitent about them. He is a ruthless man and almost before the lies start one starts to get an instinctive dislike towards him. One also wonders how Dana could be that naive but she does come from a very strongly supportive family who stood up for good values so that she has a habit of thinking the best of everyone whom she associates with.

For a person unused to New York icons, this was a good read. From lunches at Cipriani to meeting hugely popular fashion editors and people of style this was an interesting book for me.  Celebrities formed the social gathering of Dana's parties and meetings and this created a lot of interest as it also formed the major part of both Dana's life and career. 

The characters - all of them not just Dana and Brett are brought to life and it gives you a very good understanding of how New York was in the 70s for those with high profile lives and careers. 

3 comments:

  1. I love stories set in the city! This sounds good to me.

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  2. I like all the good freebies you gind

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  3. This book sounds especially interesting, Mystica, since I worked in NYC during that time or at least just as the 60's were ending. I remember B. Altman's Department store - it was one of the most beautiful and their Christmas windows every year were a tradition of excellence and delight. Unfortunately, the store went out of business eventually. Sad day. (I still keep my pink B. Altman credit card as a memento.) Anyway, I've added the book's title to my every increasing TBR list. Thanks for the intro. :)

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