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More About This Book

Overview

With her sharp wit and riveting style, Leslie Carroll plunges us deep into the world of the overscheduled children of New York, and the oversexed, over-lipoed, overpaid people who raise them -or pay their nannies!

What happens when a trophy wife gets turned in for someone even younger, blonder, and prettier? Claire Marsh doesn't take it lying down. She may have lost both husband and housekeeper in the horrible divorce, but even if she's not able to keep living in the manner to which she's accustomed, she'll do what it takes so that her daughter will—with a little help from her slightly wild, slightly out-of-control sister MiMi.

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780060596064
  • Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
  • Publication date: 1/18/2005
  • Pages: 400
  • Sales rank: 924,252
  • Product dimensions: 5.31 (w) x 8.00 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Meet the Author

Native New Yorker Leslie Carroll is a multi-published novelist of contemporary women's fiction, and the author of several works of historical fiction under the pen name Amanda Elyot. She is also a professional actress, dramatist, and journalist.

First Chapter

Play Dates

Chapter One

September

"Zoë, honey, please put those down. You're only six years old."

"I'm six and three-quarters."

"I'm sorry, sweetie. Six and three-quarters. Yes, you're a big girl, now. Still, you can't wear high heels to second grade."

"I want to look like MiMi."

"You'll have plenty of time to look like your aunt MiMi," I cajole. "Believe me, you don't want to rush growing up."

"Yes, I do."

We've been hunting for the perfect pair of school shoes for upwards of half an hour. My linen dress is clinging to my body like a limp dishrag. This has to be the hottest Labor Day on record.You could fry an egg in the middle of Broadway. It's so muggy outside that we could have waded up to Harry's Shoes, which must be the craziest place in the city to have to visit on the last shopping day before school starts. It's mayhem in here. The decibel level is even worse than a Saturday afternoon at PlaySpace. Honestly, I don't know how the salespeople cope.The management must give them a free hit of Prozac when they punch their time card.

I think the mothers and merchants of New York City will breathe a collective sigh of relief tomorrow. I sure know I could use a break. I've spent every day this summer with Zoë. It's the first time I've ever had to care for her 24/7. I lost both husband and housekeeper in the divorce. Hilda had been Scott's mother's housekeeper at one point, so her loyalty was to the Franklins. I've had no one to pick up the slack, so I could catch a catnap, find twenty minutes for a manicure, or—God forbid— go to lunch with a girlfriend.

Zoë, looking like a wilted daisy, comes over to me complaining of the heat and humidity. "I'm sticky," she gripes, pushing limp bangs off her forehead with a grubby hand. I open my bag, whip out a Wash'n Dri, mop her brow, wipe her hands, and pin up her hair with an elastic and a clip.

"Blow," Zoë says, and I purse my lips and generate a gentle Mommy breeze, cooling the nape of her neck and her face.

Brimming with purpose and bustle, a tall woman with one of those year-round tans, forty-something and looks it, practically tramples a knot of preschoolers to get to me. She's nearly out of breath. "Who do you work for?" she asks abruptly.

"I don't understand," I reply, caught completely by surprise.

"I've been watching you from across the room," she says. "I'm sorry. I thought you spoke English. I wanted to know who you work for."

"Who do I work for?" I'm still not getting it. Maybe the intense heat of the day has baked my brain.

The woman slips into the cadences one uses when they think they're speaking to someone either dreadfully hard of hearing or from a country whose gross national income wouldn't cover the cost of an August sublet in the Hamptons. "It's so hard to find someone who—you know—well, speaks English. And is well-groomed—and—you're so good with the little girl." She unsnaps her Fendi "baguette" and withdraws a slim leather card case. "If you're ever unhappy with your present situation, please do consider giving me a call. Xander isn't much of a handful." She points out a small boy about Zoë's age with an unruly mop of brown curls, banging together two Yao Ming-size Timberlands as if they're a pair of orchestra cymbals.

Oh, good Lord. I get it now. "You think I'm an au pair, don't you?" I ask the older woman. She looks so smug, I decide that the most delicious way to set her straight is through indirect communication. Besides, a smartass remark just isn't me.My sister Mia is the one who excels at the witty rejoinder. "Zoë, sweetie, please let's settle on something. Mommy's going to pass out in a few minutes if we don't get away from this crowd." The child has a way of totally zoning out for some reason whenever we go to a shoe store. I guess it's why I postponed the schoolshoe shopping expedition until the last possible moment.

I'm trying not to let her see how exasperated I am that what should have been a half-hour excursion is turning into a day trip. And in this heat it's not easy. Ever since her father left, I feel guilty when I get angry or lose patience with her. The divorce was rough on both of us and I'm unused to being the disciplinarian. More than that, I'm uncomfortable with it. My own parents are uncharacteristically non-neurotic. Actually, I suppose their loopy progressiveness is their own form of dysfunction, and not having grown up in a strict household, I haven't a clue how to run one, even when discipline is clearly called for.

My now-ex-husband Scott was able to handle his dot-com CFO responsibilities from home much of the time, so while I took a full course load at Columbia and got my bachelor's degree in art history during Zoë's first four years, it was Scott who heard our daughter say her first word ("Da") and whose hands she let go of when she took her first cautious, halting, baby steps. Zoë worships her father and has been blaming me for the divorce, even though it was Scott who decided to walk away from the marriage several months ago.

My cell phone vibrates. It's my friend Sue. "Where are you?" she demands accusingly.

Well, no reason for her to cop an attitude, just because we haven't been in touch for a while! What have I done to her? "I'm at Harry's trying to find Zoë some school shoes she can live with. What's the matter?"

Play Dates. Copyright © by Leslie Carroll. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
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Sort by: Showing all of 5 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted February 23, 2005

    BUY PLAY DATES.....YOU'LL LOVE IT!

    I read PLAY DATES with my own granddaughter as a frame of reference...Leslie Carroll hits the mark, right on! As the grandmother of a little girl just about the age of Leslie Carroll¿s Zoe, I can honestly say that no one captures the speech and foibles of a New York kid more vividly than Ms. Carroll does. In PLAY DATES she hones in on the life and times of a six/seven year old, precocious child and her single, over-stressed Mom who strives to do all the right things, all the while knowing her child has a better social life than she does. The book is witty and amusing downright laugh- aloud funny -yet charming and touching. I found myself reflecting on the problems my own two daughters had in a private school similar to the one Zoe attended...and while Zoe is compared to her Mother, who had the same teacher, my younger daughter was compared to her older sister. Everyone I know can relate to the teacher as tyrant...to the unreasonable expectations and to the stretch to pay the outrageous tuitions because NYC public schools are not places for smart, intellectually curious children. I¿ve discussed the book with young Mom¿s I know, who inevitably say -¿that¿s my life¿. Its an eye-opening and delightful read! I loved Play Dates...you will, too!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted January 31, 2005

    eh...

    This book was fairly amusing, but a little stupid. The characters seemed fairly real but completely unlikeable, and that whole thing about the sisters finding boyfriends at the same time... that was just plain unbelievable (and not in a good way.)This book is good if you are really, really bored, but otherwise, leave it on the shelf until you have absolutely nothing else to do.

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  • Posted December 9, 2008

    more from this reviewer

    amusing chick lit tale

    Twenty something Claire Marsh raises her almost seven year old going on thirty second grader Zoe by herself since her spouse dumped the two of them for an older woman. Helping or hindering Claire depending on your perspective is her older sister MiMi, Zoe¿s role model in living life to the fullest with dates and other happenings. While Zoe has PLAY DATES with friends along Manhattan¿s Upper West Side, Claire plays child escort and wonders when she might have a date like big sis and little daughter.--- Although her parents cover her Central Park apartment, Claire finds work as a museum tour guide, her first income maker that is discounting her parents and spouse. She does a good job but that interferes with working with Zoe on the private school projects though the latter normally means working alone while the kid has fun. Claire figures that when she grows up she wants to be just like Zoe, a successful social butterfly, but first the next tour group needs escorting.--- PLAY DATES is an amusing chick lit tale starring a delightful protagonists bemoaning her lot in life (she would complain in heaven) yet no doubt loves her daughter, her sister, and her parents, and insures Zoe is raised in a proper caring manner. The story line is amusing whether it concentrates on Claire¿s lament or follows her leading a tour group. Though there is little real crisis as her family provides a warm loving safety net for the Marsh females, readers will enjoy Claire¿s Manhattan escapades and the black book coda containing a Leslie Carroll interview of her.--- Harriet Klausner

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  • Anonymous

    Posted February 24, 2005

    From an Urban Mom

    As a mother with two children in NYC¿s fast-paced private school arena, I was delighted to read Leslie Carroll¿s Play Dates. With wit, warmth and well-placed satire, she captures the essence of the social and academic pressures faced by both parents and children in this competitive scene. I can¿t imagine a mother who cannot find a bit of herself or her child in this book. I recommended it to a number of friends at my daughter¿s school, and they all found it thoroughly delightful. It is a refreshing, urban fairy tale for grown-ups that will bring a smile to your face no matter how stressful your day.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted November 2, 2008

    No text was provided for this review.

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