The Recessionistas

by Alexandra Lebenthal

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780446568890
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	08/09/2010
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	513,013
File size:	722 KB

About the Author

Alexandra Lebenthal is the socially prominent President and CEO of Lebenthal & Co, and its wealth management division, Alexandra & James Inc. Her father is Jim Lebenthal, who made his name in municipal bonds. She also serves as a board member of the School of American Ballet and is involved with several other leading New York cultural institutions including The Business Council of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Capital Campaign for the Museum of the City of New York, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New York Botanical Garden.

Editorial Reviews

An inessential romp through the economic collapse of 2008 from Lebenthal, member of a "storied Wall Street family," follows two Streeters as they scramble to salvage their money and their lives. Brash hedge fund owner John Cutter is busy hiding his money from his estranged wife while his accomplice, Blake Somerset, hangs on by a thread at crashing Lehman Brothers. Blake's shrewish wife, Grigsby, meanwhile, keeps a white-knuckle grip on the top rung of Upper East Side society. Look for oodles of air kissing, high-society shindigs, Wall Street jargon, and Bernie Madoff-like skullduggery in this diary of craven greed and its inevitable comeuppance. Lebenthal, unfortunately, has a better handle on matters of the purse than matters of the heart, and while the business dope has its own velocity, the characters are little more than cutouts. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"THE RECESSIONISTAS is a romp of a book. It is fun and funny, devilish and decadent, wry and witty. It is also a razor-edged portrait of that sui generis creature known as the Manhattan upper east sider oh so painfully learning that life is not always a billion-dollar hedge fund."—Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights and contributing editor, Vanity Fair

"No one but Alexandra Lebenthal— part financial wizardress, part keen social observer— could write this unflinching portrait of New York's neo-gilded age, pre-and-post Wall Street apocalypse."—Jill Kargman, author of The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund

"As only she could do so well—given her platinum pedigree and Wall Street cred—Alexandra Lebenthal has written a smart, sassy novel that peers into a world of wealth and privilege turned on its crazy head. This is a dishy, divine first novel."—William Cohan, New York Times bestselling author of House of Cards

"A rollicking debut by an author who clearly knows the secrets of the boom — and the bust."—Mark Seal, contributing editor, Vanity Fair

"This is a book Balzac would have enjoyed. I loved every minute of their spectacular fall."—Jesse Kornbluth, contributor, HuffingtonPost.com

From the Publisher

"This is a book Balzac would have enjoyed. I loved every minute of their spectacular fall."

Jesse Kornbluth

"A rollicking debut by an author who clearly knows the secrets of the boom -- and the bust."

Mark Seal

"As only she could do so well--given her platinum pedigree and Wall Street cred--Alexandra Lebenthal has written a smart, sassy novel that peers into a world of wealth and privilege turned on its crazy head. This is a dishy, divine first novel."

William Cohan

"No one but Alexandra Lebenthal-- part financial wizardress, part keen social observer-- could write this unflinching portrait of New York's neo-gilded age, pre-and-post Wall Street apocalypse."

Jill Kargman

"THE RECESSIONISTAS is a romp of a book. It is fun and funny, devilish and decadent, wry and witty. It is also a razor-edged portrait of that sui generis creature known as the Manhattan upper east sider oh so painfully learning that life is not always a billion-dollar hedge fund."

Buzz Bissinger

In her debut novel, Lebenthal makes superb use of her extensive experience as a wealth management analyst and socialite to provide an insider's view of the financial collapse of 2008. In layperson's language she deftly clarifies hedge fund strategies, mortgage-backed securities, and the real-estate bubble and depicts how this house of cards tumbles to threaten the extraordinary lives of Upper East Side fashionistas, some of whom are more aware and resourceful than others. As her husband's wealth plummets from $55 million to $4 million, the clueless and pampered Grigsby Somerset insists that her world of private schools for her children, a house in Southampton, and Christmas in Palm Beach cannot change. The bright and beautiful Harlem-raised Renee Parker, who made her way as a scholarship student through the best schools to Wall Street, discovers her boss, a despicable hedge fund owner in the midst of divorce proceedings, is busily hiding assets as his fortune unravels. Sasha Silver, a savvy entrepreneur with a heart, tries to navigate the sale of her company without hurting her employees.Verdict This fun and sassy novel delivers satisfying poetic justice in its depiction of the hubris and sense of entitlement that led to the economic downfall of many wealthy New Yorkers. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/10.]—Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC

Library Journal