The Ivy Chronicles

Author: Karen Quinn
Published: January 31, 2006 (Plume)
Category: General fiction
Quote of choice: "Did you know that every Jewish prayer starts out 'I broke my toe in Illinois'?" "I think you mean Barukh atah Adonai," Mr. Taymore said.

Thanks to my proofreading class, I was able to plow through this book in just one night (but I did stay up two hours later than my bedtime). I was very impressed by this book. Usually, the "woman has great life that is snatched from her, tries to solve her problems, comes upon temporary relief, has it come crashing down on her ears again, and then learns from her failure (because apparently, losing her great life didn't teach her a lesson)" genre tires me. The problem is best exemplified in Sophie Kinsella's Shopaholic series, of which I've sadly read the first three books.

Problem: The Shopaholic never learned her lesson because she'd screw up in every book in the same way, as though she was too stupid to learn from her previous mistakes. Now, I understand the dramatic need for these problems to happen, but at the expense of encouraging the "stupid girl can't take care of herself" stereotype? It gets boring after the second book.

Quinn, on the other hand, creates Ivy Ames, a mother of two, and sole breadwinner of her family. On the same day she loses her high-paying job, her marriage falls apart and she moves from a gorgeous Park Avenue apartment to the Lower East Side. Ivy becomes a kindergarten application adviser to several wealthy families, charging 10 to 20 thousand per case (but she does one pro bono for a mother who really deserves the help). It turns out that applying to private schools is a horrible experience, even for the wealthy, and they actually pay people to help them!

Of course, with wealthy clients come the inevitable assholes who think they deserve everything just because they're rich. Don't worry, the biggest asshole gets his comeuppance. I'm a sucker for poetic justice, and its presence in Ivy Chronicles is partially why I loved the book. While a lot of the book sounds fantastical (i.e. Ivy's best friend Faith, married to a billionaire, is a generous non-bitch - rare, indeed - even rarer, her husband is a decent guy too), Quinn makes Ivy more realistic than a lot of characters I've read about. Near the end of the novel, Ivy comes into a sum of money, given to her as a bribe by a grandfather wanting to influence his grandson's private school selection. If a person without any sense of reality were writing Ivy Chronicles, Ivy probably would've given all the money away to charity because its "the right thing to do." However, since Quinn is not a moron, Ivy gives about half to charity and saves the rest for her family so they won't starve while she figures out a better career for herself.

I think Ivy Chronicles is a great book, an entertaining read about a woman having to start her life all over again, and discovering that even at 39 years-old, you can still have some growing up to do.