Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780312377984
ISBN: 0312377983
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2007-12-10
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: 2007-12-10
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin

Customer Rating:
Summary: Humorous and Heartbreaking
Comment:
This story earnestly grabs you from the start: Young privileged students are not exempt from the hazards of death and mental illness. And yet from the depth of despair there emerges a genuine humility and ironic humor, a hard earned understanding of their vulnerable existence. "Posh" is well worth the journey--and it's funny too!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've Read in a While
Comment: I absolutely LOVED Posh! It tells the story of the secret and unknown world of Manhattan's rich kids. Also, Lucy Jackson is an excellent writer who makes the story interesting and captivating. After I picked up this book, I could barely put it down.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: One of the most entertaining novels I've read in a long while
Comment: POSH is, paradoxically, both a terribly sad and very funny
novel. The characters are vividly portrayed, and the prose
is lovely and understated. This is one of the most entertaining
novels I've read in a long while.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Posh? Pish tosh! (spoof alert!!)
Comment: If the format (that mocks the modern reader) and characters (stereotypical and jarring) didn't give it away, the pseudonym surely does! And the title is a hoot!

I am not an American from New York so it's likely that much of the humour is lost on me. However the short chapters, about the length of commercial breaks, take a deserved swipe at a the modern reader with the attention span of a gnat. I can almost see the scenes panning out and in.

The banal plot and mundane characters have about as much depth as commercial breaks too. The perimenopausal school principal having an affair with a teacher - she was (gasp!) duped, loses her husband and gets fired - what a surprise!

The frosty mother who ignores her son while sewing a closet full of clothes for her Chinese Crested Hairless would have been a hoot if both she and her mentally ill son weren't so pathetic.

I did laugh at the stereotypical Arab prince, who mesmerizes the 'headmistress' with his British accent. Woo hoo!! This Canuck knows first hand that many Americans think ALL British accents sound frightfully educated - even the low-brow ones. The robbery that leaves its victims more embarrassed at their fear than anything is an example of the sarcasm that is a bit too deep to be funny - though I guess that the US should be (at least!) embarrassed at their reaction to 9/11.

Julianne's mother is a cab driving novelist wanna-be who sleeps on the couch and yet manages to send her daughter to a school with an annual tuition of $23,000??? - with only an oblique hint at how they come up with the $$ and no explanation as to why they would bother!! Are you still taking this book seriously?

Julianne herself is a saintly, impossibly mature teenager with no envy as she watches her friends spend hundreds and hundreds on jeans and t-shirts - "It's never really bothered her. Honestly." Right. Her rich classmates completely accept her. There is never any conflict because they can afford to do things that she cannot.

Pish-tosh.

The quality of the writing suggests that this is a capable author who hankers to write a comedy but knows full well that his/her sarcasm is so deep and delivery so deadpan that the majority of readers will miss the joke completely - which just may be the point.

I'll bet he/she is getting a huge laugh over these reviews! I didn't laugh much at the book but I sure did when I read the reviews here.

For many of us, this book is a waste of time. Having said that, you CAN read it during commercials and there probably are a few with the wit to find it as hugely funny as the author intends. For those few, I give it 4 stars.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not What It Seems
Comment: Whenever I grab a book of this genre I usually know what I'm in for (that's why I choose it). This book turned out to be a little heavier then most "NYC private school" stories but in a realistic and engaging way. It left me curious as to the author's true identity :) I would like to read more by Ms. Jackson...

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