The American Dream continues to be a fascinating topic of fiction, especially for New York Times reporter Stephanie Clifford, whose debut novel, Everybody Rise, is being compared with the works of Edith Wharton and Tom Wolfe.
Clifford's protagonist, 26-year-old Evelyn Beegan, lives an upper-middle-class existence, dallying around the outer edges of the Old Money set, mingling with them, but never quite belonging. Evelyn attended Sheffield, an elite boarding school, then relocated to New York City and took a job recruiting socialite movers and shakers for an exclusive social media start-up called People Like Us (PLU). Justifying it as necessary for her job, Evelyn forces herself to join in on weekend trips, benefits, galas and posh affairs that are far beyond her means. But it isn't long before Evelyn's focus is less about her career ambition and more about her personal ambition.
Clifford expertly develops Evelyn's addiction to her aspirations. The young woman who starts out resisting her mother's beauty recommendations evolves into a fashionista and an expert on debutante ball etiquette. Readers will cringe as Evelyn alienates her true friends and allows her growing need for acceptance to destroy her best qualities. Her whole world perspective goes out of focus.
In the words of "Ladies Who Lunch," the song containing the book's title, Everybody Rise is "another brilliant zinger" that puts the fine line of ambition under the societal microscope to examine where it turns from laudable to destructive. Timeless. Universal. I'll drink to that. --Jen Forbus of Jen's Book Thoughts