October 12, 2009
Former journalist Klaffke's debut is a delicious guilty pleasure full of hilarious, irreverent moments in the declining career of a glossy mag gal. Sixteen years after founding the snarky Snap
magazine on a shoestring budget, editor Sara B. has grown the scrappy zine into one of Canada's biggest weekly glossies, spawning three boutiques, a “Trend Mecca Boot Camp Weekend” and a slew of imitators. Though Sara enjoys her role as arbiter of good taste—the mag's most popular feature is her Dos and Don'ts page—she's overwhelmed by the magazine's success and having suspicions that she may be a narcissistic jerk. Furthermore, at 39, she's beginning to question the validity of a career that involves making fun of people for a living, and she's even having trouble telling the Dos from the Don'ts—a fact hammered home by her stylish young assistant. Although Sara's runaway imagination takes a few turns for the disturbing and she lucks into too many fortunate turns, her character arc and eventual shot at redemption make for absorbing reading. A dark, comic absurdity peppers every page of this sarcastic romp.
December 1, 2009
Sara has the job that most women would kill for. As one of the founding members of the unquestionably cool underground magazine Snap, her dos-and-donts fashion photo column is a must-read for urban hipsters. But as she ages and as the fashions reach new heights of bizarreness, Sara begins to doubt her editorial eye and lose her confidence. Throw in a drinking problem, a relationship on the rocks, friends that are outgrowing her, and a very eager new assistant with a threateningly cool grasp on fashion, and Sara is heading for a breakdown. Klaffke, author of Spree: A Cultural History of Shopping (2003), turns to fiction to explore the idea of who decides what is cool and, more important, why we listen to them. Sara is a flawed hero whose actions and motives are questionable and often reprehensible. And yet we cant help but root for her as she realizes that while she has spent her life judging other people, it is her own life that needs the makeover.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)