by Amy Poeppel

This was an absolute delight. It is the story of Kate, a STEM doctoral candidate on the fast track whose life falls apart when she gives it all up to move to Paris with a guy who immediately dumps her. At the Airport. Heartbroken and her promising career in shambles, she is virtually catatonic for a year, having to move into her married sister Angela’s Tribeca apartment to be taken care of. When she finally starts showing some signs of life, Angela sets her up both in an apartment and with an interview for a position as assistant director of admissions for one of the most elite Manhattan private schools. Even though Kate is totally unqualified and massively screws up the interview with inappropriate comments and her too-short skirt, she gets the job much to her and the reader’s surprise.

“ I should probably tell you right off the bat-I’ve never actually had a real job before, so I don’t really have many of what you might call skills…for example, I’m trying to become a better judge of character or at least better than I used to be. These days I don’t tend to like anyone.”
Mr. Bigley looked confused.
“What I meant is, I’m discriminating. But I’m not an asshole. I bet that’s a good quality for anyone working in admissions. Right?”….
“You can often glean a thing or two from how people dress. I really didn’t know what to wear today. Everyone said, “Wear a blazer,” but for some reason, I feel totally dykey in a blazer. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a lesbian…I swear-given the choice-you’d rather see me naked than in a suit….It’s like I always say, better a naked lesbian than…me…in a blazer.” What was happening? She shook her head and felt a trickle of sweat run down her back. “Was that out loud?” she asked and fanned herself with a copy of the school newspaper.
“But speaking of apparel,” she said suddenly….”

And on she goes.

Although always a little batty, Kate is as intelligent as they come and realizes this unexpected opportunity could be her salvation. Fully expecting to be fired any minute, she buckles down to learn the job and do it well.
Kate’s journey is told from multiple viewpoints including letters, emails, and messages. It would probably be very confusing listening to it on Audible! Besides her own, told in 3rd person, we hear intermittently from two concerned close friends since college(one in first person), her long-suffering sister, and even the Park Avenue parents who will do anything to get their little darlings into the revered school. Towards the end of the book, another party chimes in out of the blue and tells his side of the story solving the ongoing mystery of why “Kate-tastrophe” was hired to begin with and was able to hang on until she became an indispensable, if always unconventional, member of the close-knit team.

Although at first impatient with her self-indulgent wallowing in her misery and general hopelessness, I grew to love and respect Kate. It was interesting how the stronger she becomes, the more the foibles and flaws are revealed in her supportive supposedly “together” friends and family. We get to know them quite well directly and indirectly. We get a peek into the messed-up lives and relationships of a few select parents who are wrestling with the admissions process. And their good, bad, and misunderstood children. The book is mostly hilarious and told in an imaginative and unusual manner which reveals the layers and differing perspectives of many people and happenings. The humor is comic, wise, dry, and irreverent and the story takes some surprising and sometimes delightful turns. And one is pretty shocking, although, yes, I should have seen it coming. The tangents it sometimes goes out on turned out to be some of my favorite parts and turn out not to be not so tangential after all.

I really liked Limelight by this author, but this book, her first book, I loved. And she has two more. Only two? Hope she is busy coming up with more!