Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
When Wendy Wasserstein died of lymphoma in January at 55, many heartfelt tributes followed that focused as much on the writer's humanity as her craft.
For Wasserstein, it seemed, the two were inseparable.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Heidi Chronicles and other popular plays and books wore her heart in her art and openly drew on personal experience. That's why her warm, witty accounts of post-feminist struggles and self-actualization resonated with so many women.
The most endearing character we meet in this posthumously published first novel is a classic Wasserstein heroine: smart, earthy and charmingly neurotic. There's more than a shade of the author in Dr. Frankie Weissman, an accomplished career woman who confronts middle age with an ailing father and a romantic life that's not nearly as active as her pediatric practice.
Neither Frankie nor her creator would seem to have much in common, however, with some of the gals who claw their way through Elements of Style. (The title is a reference to the famous writers' manual and the seeming superficiality of some of the players here.)
Weissman's own lifestyle may be scrupulously modest, but her privileged upbringing and sterling professional reputation give her access to the most glamorous, desperate housewives on Manhattan's Upper East Side.
These are grown women who describe food as "scrummy" and spend their days gossiping and soliciting the top designers, decorators and dermatologists.
We meet Judy Tremont, a full-time social climber who "even with a personal assistant, a calligrapher, a dog walker, two housekeepers, a driver and a cook ... honestly felt she couldn't get everything done."
Then there is Adrienne Strong-Rodman, a former Hollywood publicist who doesn't think the wife of a billionaire -- even a soon-to-be-indicted billionaire -- should have to linger with some of the riffraff in Frankie's waiting room. That Style is set in the aftermath of 9/11 makes the catty rivalries and shallow concerns of such creatures all the more glaring.
But it also enables Wasserstein to give them glimmers of perspective and self-awareness. This is especially true of the more complicated and sympathetic characters, such as Albert, Judy's patient, literature-loving husband; and the highborn, free-spirited Samantha Acton and her husband, Charlie.
The social, sexual and spiritual conflicts that develop are seldom revelatory. But Wasserstein peppers her dishy humor with piquant and poignant insights, transcending the chick-lit cliches that Style flirts with. You would expect no less from such a sharp and generous spirit.
Elements of Style
By Wendy Wasserstein
Knopf, 307 pp., $23.95
To see more of USAToday.com, or to subscribe, go to http://www.usatoday.com
© Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
