Primates of Park Avenue : a memoir
Martin, Wednesday2015
Book
Scope and content: "Like an urban Dian Fossey, Wednesday Martin decodes the primate social behaviors of Upper East Side mothers in a brilliantly original and witty memoir about her adventures assimilating into that most secretive and elite tribe. After marrying a man from the Upper East Side and moving to the neighborhood, Wednesday Martin struggled to fit in. Drawing on her background in anthropology and primatology, she tried looking at her new world through that lens, and suddenly things fell into place. She understood the other mothers' snobbiness at school drop-off when she compared them to olive baboons. Her obsessional quest for a Hermes Birkin handbag made sense when she realized other females wielded them to establish dominance in their troop. And so she analyzed tribal migration patterns; display rituals; physical adornment, mutilation, and mating practices; extra-pair copulation; and more. Her conclusions are smart, thought-provoking, and hilariously unexpected. Every city has its Upper East Side, and in Wednesday's memoir, readers everywhere will recognize the strange cultural codes of powerful social hierarchies and the compelling desire to climb them. They will also see that Upper East Side mothers want the same things for their children that all mothers want--safety, happiness, and success--and not even sky-high penthouses and chauffeured SUVs can protect this ecologically released tribe from the universal experiences of anxiety and loss. When Wednesday's life turns upside down, she learns how deep the bonds of female friendship really are. Intelligent, funny, and heartfelt, Primates of Park Avenue lifts a veil on a secret, elite world within a world--the exotic, fascinating, and strangely familiar culture of privileged Manhattan motherhood"-- Provided by publisher.
Main title:
Primates of Park Avenue : a memoir / Wednesday Martin, PhD.
Author:
Edition:
First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
Imprint:
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2015.New York : Simon & Schuster, 2015.copyright2015
Collation:
248 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-246).
Shelving notes:
37300 0000125046 1 03-06-2015 99 http://jezebel.com/a-conversation-with-wednesday-martin-author-of-primate-1708261654 nyctro 04-06-2015 7
Contents:
Comme il Faut -- Playdate Pariah -- Going Native : Mommy Wants a Birkin -- Manhattan Geisha -- Girls Club of Manhattan -- A Xanax and a Bloody Mary: Manhattan moms on the verge of a nervouse breakdown -- A Rainy Day -- Summary Fieldnotes.
ISBN:
9781476762623 (hardback)1476762627 (hardback)
Dewey class:
974.71
LC class:
F128.68.U63
Language:
English
Subject:
Martin, WednesdayMothers -- New York (State) -- New York -- BiographyMothers -- New York (State) -- New York -- Social life and customsPrimates -- Behavior -- MiscellaneaInterpersonal relations -- New York (State) -- New YorkUpper East Side (New York, N.Y.) -- Social life and customsNew York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customsUpper East Side (New York, N.Y.) -- BiographyNew York (N.Y.) -- Biography
BRN:
15159
| Location | Collection | Call number | Status/Desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kathleen Syme Carlton | -Biography | BIOG 974.71 MART | Available |