Everybody Rise

The upstart heroine of this debut novel by New York Times reporter Clifford wages a one-woman assault on the old-money snobbery of the Upper East Side before the Wall Street stock market crash of 2008. Raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland by a charismatic lawyer and a mother who futilely yearned to be part of “high society,” Evelyn Beegan went to an elite New England boarding school and rubbed elbows with wealthy old-money families, though she was only middle-class herself. Now a job at a start-up social network for “1-percenters” requires her to worm her way into that social set—and she finds herself addicted to the heady world of debutante balls, museum benefits, and women who spend their days lunching, shopping, and going to spas. Her desperate social climbing leads her to lie outrageously about her background, and she gets deep into debt trying to keep up with the leisure class. Narrator Kellgren has a blast with the voices here—plummy Thurston Howell tones for aristocratic rich men, a bratty prep-school/Valley girl voice for a spoiled debutante, an expansive Southern accent for Evelyn’s dad, and even an authentic German accent for a housekeeper. Her marvelous narration makes an entertaining listen. A St. Martin’s hardcover. (Aug.)