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The Recessionistas

por Alexandra Lebenthal

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597439,574 (3.27)2
It's the day after Labor Day, 2008, and the elite universe of New York's Upper East Side is about to unravel along with the economy. Socialite Grigsby Somerset is barely aware of her changing world and has no idea her investment banker husband, Blake, is about to enter into a devil's bargain with hedge fund owner John Cutter. As autumn unfolds, Grigsby's fairytale life starts to unwind. Street-smart Renee Parker has been hired as John's executive assistant and is convinced that something is amiss with her new boss. Renee enlists her friend Sasha Silver, CEO of Silver Partners, to help her decipher what is happening. They soon discover that John is nearly ruined, except for the assets he is hiding in the Cayman Islands from his wife, Mimi, and has concocted with Blake a scheme to redeem himself. This tale of expulsion from a modern-day Garden of Eden captures what happens when economic decline spells ruin for Manhattan's pampered elite.… (más)
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Unlike some readers, I actually enjoyed the explanations of the extremely complicated financial instruments in play on Wall Street in the years before the 2008 financial crisis. It was precisely because very few people really knew how all that garbage actually worked that the whole thing spiralled out of control and brought down the financial system, almost world-wide.

Alexandra Lebenthal, a Wall Street veteran herself, knows her characters. The writing is a bit clunky and the dialogue is stilted, but the story just leads you on to find out what is going to happen to these (mostly) wretched people. Sasha isn't as smart as she thinks she is, and Renee isn't as saintly as she appears, although these two are the main heroines. Grigsby has a lizard brain, but she knows exactly what she needs and goes after it with unerring instinct.

The writing & dialogue do sound a bit stiff sometimes, but Ms. Lebenthal is primarily a businesswoman, not a professional novelist, so I won't carp too much. Schadenfreude in the most addictive way! ( )
  booksandscones | May 24, 2016 |
Surprizingly good. I understand on a different level what happened in 2008.
  shazjhb | Mar 12, 2011 |
Recessionistas by Alexandra Lebenthal (ARC)
Published by Grand Central Publishing
ISBN 978-0-446-56367-3
At the request of The Hachette Book Group, a TPB was sent, at no cost to me, for my honest opinion.
Synopsis (back of book): It's the day after Labor Day, 2008, and the elite universe of New York's Upper East Side is bout to unravel along with the economy. Socialite Grigsby Somerset is barely aware of her changing world and has no idea her investment banker husband, Blake, is about to enter into a devil's bargain with hedge fund owner John Cutter. As autumn unfolds, Grigsby's fairytale life starts to unwind. Street-smart Renee Parker has been hired as John's executive assistant and is convinced that something is amiss with her new boss. Renee enlists her friend that something is amiss with her new boss. Renee enlists her friends Sasha Silver, CEO of Silver Partners, to help her decipher what is happening. They soon discover that John is nearly ruined, except for the assets he is hiding in the Cayman Islands from his wife, Mimi, and has concocted with Blake a scheme to redeem himself, This tale of expulsion from a modern-day Garden of Eden captures what happens when economic decline spells ruin for Manhattan's pampered elite.
My Thoughts and Opinion: When I accepted this book, I thought it would be a classic chick lit read. However, it falls under more categories including: socialites, rich people, recessions, etc., and more, including attempted murder. The cast of characters varied widely from socialites to CEOs on Wall Street. Some likeable, some that left me shaking my head. The plot flowed but there was a lot of reference to the recent financial problems with hedge funds, which at times, I felt slowed down the story line. It was neither a fast paced nor profound read, which leaves it right in the middle as far as rating.
My Rating: 3 ( )
  CMash | Dec 16, 2010 |
I enjoyed The Recessionistas. There were five main characters, one of which was Wall Street itself which had a big effect on all the rest. Grigsby Somerset was amusing in her snobbishness and confidence in what is correct, her husband’s assistant thought of her as “Marie Antoinette”. Sasha Silver was a rising star of the business world but somehow didn’t have the political acumen that she needed. Mimi Cutter lived very expensively and was losing her confidence in her own ability of how to dress. Lastly, Renee Phillips is tall, sleek and very smart in how to stand up for herself and advance in employment. Although all of these women were very different from each other they were all
All of the characters were affected by the decline of the stock markets and the housing bubble burst even if a few couldn't understand why. If you enjoy satiric wit, you will enjoy this book. Oddly, when I compare these women to what I have heard on television news reports, the description is very accurate. This book does not tell the story of those outside of the Wall Street, that is a completely different story but it is inside a unique window into its deceit and trickery when it is bad. I highly recommend this book. ( )
  Carolee888 | Nov 30, 2010 |
For these New Yorkers, life as they knew it — drowning in wealth, lacking in morals — is about to come to an end.

It’s an unsettling economic time when Grigsby Somerset, a primping socialite, is working tirelessly to get her 4-year-old in just the “right” private school — just as Blake, her investment banker husband, finds himself mired in a cataclysmic mess. He’s gotten himself on the wrong end of a deal with John Cutter, a caustic hedge fund owner, and the consequences could be dire.

Nearby is Sasha Silver, a powerful woman on Wall Street who only learns of serious changes within her company through office whisperings. Worried she’s being kept purposely out of the loop, Sasha has to wise up — and get some answers. Through the encouragement of her friend Renee Parker, John Cutter’s new executive assistant, she must struggle to keep afloat in a great period of financial stress. Like everyone in The Recessionistas.

Alexandra Lebenthal’s debut novel sets the stage beautifully: it’s the day after Labor Day in 2008, just before the U.S. markets seemed to spiral into a complete and utter meltdown. In 2010, hearing newscasters trumpet “The Great Recession” doesn’t seem to faze us too much; after all, we’ve been living in a period of high unemployment, foreclosures and instability for years now. But looking back to the “before,” it’s easy — for some of us — to remember those feelings of prosperity, and the misguided belief that the good times would never end.

But they did. For many Americans, and for everyone in The Recessionistas.

What worked for me was Lebenthal’s way of dropping us into a story and immediately giving us enough background on each character to understand how and why they were acting as they did. Basically, I didn’t suffer from Too Many Character-itis because the author provided enough information for us to have a clear understanding of each person’s relationship to one another — and yes, they were all connected. Somehow. Though the first 100 pages or so were merely setting the stage for everyone’s inevitable downfall, it didn’t feel taxing to me.

But here’s my beef with this one. While I understood each character, I didn’t feel like I got to know them – on any deeper level. And because I didn’t know them well enough to hate or love them, this ended up being a pretty “meh” read for me. I was all gung-ho in the beginning, you know, waiting to really start to loathe these people — especially the ridiculous Grigsby Somerset — and ended up feeling . . . indifferent, sadly.

I would have enjoyed the novel far more had Lebenthal made Grigsby and her other socialite friends into larger caricatures than they actually were. Because Grigsby came across as human — and, subsequently, boring — it was hard to muster up the enthusiasm to despise or applaud her. I wanted to see her impulses strewn out onto the page, making us cheer with delight when she was forced to sell her expensive jewelry in order to afford her housekeeper (oh, the humanity!).

Of course, when you learn who that housekeeper is — and why she’s central to the story — it changes everything.

It was tough, too, for me to get past the stilted and very unrealistic dialogue, and that’s what soured me most on the book. Of all my reading pet peeves — and Lord knows there are many — the largest sin of all was committed in these here pages. Example, paraphrased for your convenience and mine:

“Grigsby, we’re going to have to cut back on some things.”
“But Blake, I don’t want to cut back. I like being a diamond-dripping trophy wife.”
“Well, Grigsby, I don’t know what to tell you. Life is going to get tougher.”
“I won’t accept it, Blake. I just won’t.”


See all those names floating across the page, included in just about every line of dialogue? People don’t talk like that. I certainly don’t talk like that. And if you’re, um, married to someone and you still feel the need to address them by name every time you speak to them, some larger issues are at work there.

And yes, the whole book felt like that.

I’m not going to tell you The Recessionistas was a bad read — because it wasn’t. Huge paragraphs on intricate financial workings aside, this was a quick read that smacked of truth for me — mostly because it’s dealing with a time in American history that we’re all living in. It’s contemporary fiction at its most pure, because it’s still happening. And that, alone, was interesting enough to keep me reading. And wondering how it all will end. ( )
1 vota writemeg | Sep 20, 2010 |
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For my mother Jacqueline Beymer Lebenthal
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The Tuesday after Labor Day in New York City is the definitive sign that summer is over.
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It's the day after Labor Day, 2008, and the elite universe of New York's Upper East Side is about to unravel along with the economy. Socialite Grigsby Somerset is barely aware of her changing world and has no idea her investment banker husband, Blake, is about to enter into a devil's bargain with hedge fund owner John Cutter. As autumn unfolds, Grigsby's fairytale life starts to unwind. Street-smart Renee Parker has been hired as John's executive assistant and is convinced that something is amiss with her new boss. Renee enlists her friend Sasha Silver, CEO of Silver Partners, to help her decipher what is happening. They soon discover that John is nearly ruined, except for the assets he is hiding in the Cayman Islands from his wife, Mimi, and has concocted with Blake a scheme to redeem himself. This tale of expulsion from a modern-day Garden of Eden captures what happens when economic decline spells ruin for Manhattan's pampered elite.

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