IVY CHRONICLES (P)(艾维历代记)

Book Description
When Ivy Ames, a high-powered Wall Street executive, comes home to find her unemployed husband in bed with the wife of the traitor who's just taken her job, she decides a drastic and swift change is in order, Now jobless, husbandless, apartmentless — and even a bit clueless — she must find a way to put her life back together and take care of herself and her two young daughters. Down on her luck and with surprisingly little money left, she opens a business consulting with parents of toddler-aged children who dream of attending New York City's most prestigious kindergartens. And oh, the misadventures that follow!

From the self-important Stu who thinks his pampered kid is the next Einstein to the lesbian mothers raising a talented disabled African-American little boy they adopted (the triple crown of diversity that every school would covet), Ivy's clients run the gamut. Her efforts to start this new business, embark on two teetering romances, tend to her own children, and find a new way in the world makes for a hilarious, over-the-top read. What begins as a business move born of pure financial desperation turns into a woman's quest to reinvent herself, and in the process expose the unbelievably preposterous underbelly of Manhattan's elite private school admissions process...for five year olds.

Amazon.com
Karen Quinn's The Ivy Chronicles is the amusing story of what happens when a New Yorker loses her job, her husband, and her ritzy Park Avenue pad and is forced to carve out a new niche for herself and her two private school-educated daughters. After transferring the girls to public school and renting a shabby-chic (at best) flat upstairs from a knicherie, Ivy Ames takes her billionaire friend Faith's advice and starts a consulting business to help privileged pre-schoolers get into the city's premier kindergartens. Light on substance yet heavy on laughs, Quinn does a reasonably successful job of following in the well-heeled footsteps of earlier gossip lit standouts such as The Nanny Diaries and The Devil Wears Prada.

While Ivy's moral quandaries (is it really wrong to accept an alligator-skin Prada in exchange for securing a child's placement at a top "Baby Ivy") and often raunchy romances form the basis for this exposé, it is the toddlers' family stories that get the most laughs along the way. From Maria Kutcher, whose mob boss father is often referred to as "Kutcher the Butcher" to Winnie Weiner, a "nice Jewish girl from the Upper West Side" who becomes the African-American WaShaunte Washington in order to snag a "diversity" spot at the top schools, Quinn spares no one when it comes to exposing the habits of the rich and almost-famous. Yet even as Ivy begins to see the error of her snobbish ways, Quinn never quite lets her off the hook completely ("...it was such a relief to have a powerful man to lean on. Why couldn't I have one of my very own? Why?"). Still, for those of us who are in need of a quick laugh and have a few hours to spare, The Ivy Chronicles promises to entertain and amuse.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　--Gisele To

From Publishers Weekly
When 39-year-old Ivy Ames loses her corporate job, her big-shot husband, Cadman, cheats on her and she's too poor for her pampered Upper East Side lifestyle, she finds herself creating a new life for herself and her two young daughters on New York's exponentially less tony Lower East Side. Ivy hammers out a living helping the city's elite nab spots in the most exclusive private kindergartens in town, but first-time author Quinn's book isn't a feel-good tale about realizing money isn't everything. Even as Ivy comes to understand that her former life among the ultra-rich was absurd and shallow at best, she continues to hope that she'll snag a new husband so rich that she'll never have to work again. Quinn's characters are unapologetically shallow, two-dimensional cartoons designed to affably lampoon the silliness of New York's elite, giving readers ample opportunity to snicker at people like a newspaper mogul willing to pay off the FDA to get her demon child into a "baby Ivy" league kindergarten and other wealthy, overly successful parents who use their kids to channel ambition and perpetuate elitism. It's good fun in small doses, but lengthy exposure to the cotton candy plot and caricaturish characters may leave readers with the zombie-like feeling produced by watching too many reality TV makeovers.

From Booklist
This superficial first novel is full of two-dimensional characters and exaggerated plot devices trimmed liberally with humor. It's difficult to sympathize with turbocharged Park Avenue-mom Ivy Ames after she loses her high-powered executive position to a backstabbing coworker, and her husband to the coworker's trophy wife. Ivy turns her life around by moving her two spoiled daughters into an apartment above a kosher deli on the Lower East Side and opening a business that helps wealthy social-climbing parents get their resume-toting tots into the "Baby Ivies." The breezy plot is full of camera-ready scenes and characters: the lovable mobster with an aggressive daughter, the odious yuppie--father of an awkward child, the industrious yet destitute maid with a brilliant son, and the requisite love triangle made up of Ivy, the cute-and-comfy deli owner, and the adorably aimless novelist. There's plenty of screwball scenes involving children, dogs, and lovably gruff New Yorkers. By turns heartwarming and schmaltzy, this novel begs to be filmed instead of printed. A guilty pleasure worth indulging.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　Kaite Mediatore

About Author
KAREN QUINN, after losing her own high-powered corporate job, helped found Smart City Kids, a New York City–based company that helps families survive the application process to the area’s most competitive public and private schools. She is now a full-time writer.

Book Dimension :
length: (cm)20.3 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)13.7

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When turbocharged Park Avenue mom Ivy Ames finds that she’s been downsized from her platinum-card corporate job and her marriage, she swiftly realizes that she’s going to need a whole new way to support herself and her two private-school daughters. So she dreams up a new business—helping upscale New Yorkers get their little darlings into the most exclusive kindergartens in the city. What begins as one woman’s bid to earn a living becomes an everywoman’s tale of midlife reinvention and unexpected romance, set in a looking-glass world where even tots have résumés.

“If you think you may be a neurotic parent, read this and feel sane.”
—Allison Pearson, author of I Don’t Know How She Does It

“Entertaining . . . Picks up where The Nanny Diaries left off.”
—The New York Post

“[A] ferociously funny tale.”
—Us Weekly

“Hilarious.”
—Child magazine

“Tales of Manhattan’s elite trying to get their tots into private schools is sure to make you smirk condescendingly . . . The Ivy Chronicles delivers.”
—Boston Herald

“The brilliant, witty, and ultimately soulful heroine is a perfect tour guide who will leave you laughing up your latté.”
—Jill Kargman, author of The Right Address and Wolves in Chic Clothing

“With humor and heart, Karen Quinn brilliantly skewers the insanely competitive world of wealth we love to hate. Readers will cheer for Ivy!”
—Leslie Schnur, author of The Dog Walker

KAREN QUINN, after losing her own high-powered corporate job, helped found Smart City Kids, a New York City–based company that helps families survive the application process to the area’s most competitive public and private schools. She is now a full-time writer.