Rich and Pretty

by Rumaan Alam

This irresistible debut, set in contemporary New York, provides a sharp, insightful look into how the relationship between two best friends changes when they are no longer coming of age but learning how to live adult lives. As close as sisters for twenty years, Sarah and Lauren have been together through high school and college, first jobs and first loves, the uncertainties of their twenties and the realities of their thirties. Sarah, the only child of a prominent intellectual and a socialite, works at a charity and is methodically planning her wedding. Lauren beautiful, independent, and unpredictable is single and working in publishing, deflecting her parents worries and questions about her life and future by trying not to think about it herself. Each woman envies and is horrified by particular aspects of the other's life, topics of conversation they avoid with masterful linguistic pirouettes. Once, Sarah and Lauren were inseparable; for a long a time now, they've been apart. Can two women who rarely see one other, selectively share secrets, and lead different lives still call themselves best friends? Is it their abiding connection or just force of habit that keeps them together? With impeccable style, biting humor, and a keen sense of detail, Rumaan Alam deftly explores how the attachments we form in childhood shift as we adapt to our adult lives and how the bonds of friendship endure, even when our paths diverge.

• ISBN10: 0062429930
• ISBN13: 9780062429933
• Publish Date: 7 June 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[layawaydragon]

Rich & Pretty:

Had this on my TBR for awhile. It has not so great reviews, but it's by a marginalized author and I've gone against the grain before. That was not the case here.

To be clear, I really desperately wanted to like this book. A book following adults as they struggle to adult properly and stay friends? Fantastic, I could really use it and I haven't seen that around. I'm still look for that book. Open and ready for recommendations!

I only listened to Rich & Pretty for so long because I was at work and couldn't find another audiobook readily available. It was Friday, I didn't want to start a new one and then wait through the weekend to pick it back up on Monday. I figured I'd give a full day to change my mind. It didn't.

I don't know what the fuck the point of this book is. I made it through most of Chapter 11 of a 18 chapter book with 5 hours left in the recording. Given the dull, monotonous, pointless bullshit, I consider that quite an accomplishment.

The girls are so the same, it took me awhile to be able to differentiate and I had to remind myself. The main difference being whether they had a man or were reminiscing about men. *eyeroll*

Sara the engaged one, the positive and perky one that doesn't really have a job comes from a rich republican family with a repugnant pundit father. She purposefully remains ignorant about her father, his politics, and his doings. Leaving her whining about the roommate that ignored her through college because her father is a warmonger. I was so pissed at her just burying her head in the sand and prancing around "lalalalalala" in her privileged life. I did like how supportive and nice she was of Lauren's promotion but that's about it.

Lauren is the single one that apparently really needs a man because she's her best when in a relationship. She's defensive and judgemental. Sara is marrying a man she's been with for like 10 years and everyone loves him, but she just says Sara's marrying a fat man. Like that's the worst thing, that's all that matters to her. Her friend is settling for a fat man. She laments getting together with a group of women because of "groupthink mob mentality" that comes over a group of more than two women. Makes fun of a woman with uneven leg lengths, but swears, it's not like that. Rejected a "chubby desperate" girl wanting to make friends in 6th grade.

There are several moments, of "this isn't anti feminist or sexist because blah, blah, blah" and "oh, isn't that racist? *laugh*". So much white feminist bullshit. The author certainly nailed those parts.

Everything is "neither this or that, but in between". Describes EVERYTHING in far too much detail and terribly at that when there's no real plot or fucking point!

Some examples of the writing:

"[She] somehow looks English and she is."

"The bag weighs nothing because the sweaters weigh nothing."

Describing a woman's look: "girlish lesbian or little French boy"