Gigi Levangie Grazer
Much like the satirical novel of which she is the heroine, Clarissa Alpert is initially annoying but grows on you. The ultimate dumb bunny, she hops around Beverly Hills going shopping, getting manicures, lunching with her equally vapid friends and chasing after rich potential husbands.
But there's hope for Clarissa, the 31-year-old (she admits only to 28) leading lady of Grazer's amusing second novel. After finding herself penniless, pregnant and estranged from the film producer she wed, she finds that life extends past Rodeo Drive. (Grazer is herself hitched to Hollywood mogul Brian Grazer, who won an Oscar producing A Beautiful Mind.) First, though, Clarissa endures her own version of the five stages of grief: "Denial and Isolation, Anger, Shopping, Bikini Wax, and Acceptance."
If Grazer, whose prose style could charitably be called breezy, is not an especially artful writer, she's a funny one. It takes a sharp mind to precisely, and even sympathetically, capture a woman who considers food poisoning a welcome diet aid.
BOTTOM LINE: A relatively tasty treat
Your Reaction
