Reviews for Maneater [sound recording]
Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.
This is the second novel by Grazer, a Hollywood screenwriter, and like her previous novel ( Rescue Me, 2000), this one also has been optioned for a major feature film. Here we find the story of an obscenely superficial yet beautiful Beverly Hills resident, Clarissa, who flits about town with a group of her equally obtuse girlfriends. They lead lives of almost unimaginable vacuity. After Clarissa decides that it is time to get married, she set her sights on a man she hardly knows, mainly because of his supposed great wealth. After the briefest of courtships, she finds, upon marrying him, that he is destitute. Her parents have cut her off as well, so her life soon takes a turn for the tacky, all macaroni and cheese and crowded apartment buildings. But this character-building experience has some merit because eventually Clarissa is able to find her true calling and begin a fledgling writing career. The heroine's disdain and sarcasm have their appeal, and even romance fans will enjoy. --Kathleen Hughes Copyright 2003 Booklist
Publishers Weekly
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No other actor could capture the voice of spoiled L.A. golddigger Clarissa Alpert as perfectly as Thurman does here. She effortlessly evokes the petulance, sense of entitlement and "Ohmigod, wait 'til I tell you..." Valley Girl shallowness of this hilarious anti-heroine. Thurman effectively differentiates all the character voices, including Clarissa's coterie of colorful girlfriends. She offers a hint of British accent for Simon, Clarissa's pretentious, faux-English ex-boyfriend; a light Spanish accent for Alejandra, Clarissa's Brazilian mom; and a smarmy, false sincerity for the Hollywood movers and shakers who populate Clarissa's world. The story itself is frothy fun with a wicked satirical edge. As soon as she hears of Aaron Mason, the hottest movie producer in town, Clarissa decides to land him and his bankroll for herself, and begins phoning florists and caterers to plan their wedding-before they even meet. Her machinations are successful-or so she thinks. It turns out her quarry has been scheming just as shrewdly, motivated by his own agenda. Perfect for a long road trip or a lazy weekend at the beach, Grazer's entertaining satire is sure to spice up any occasion. Simultaneous release with the Simon & Schuster hardcover (Forecasts, May 12). (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Clarissa Alpert is 31 (but only admits to being 28); a Beverly Hills gold digger par excellence, she is out to bag a rich hubby. When she sees new Hollywood producer Aaron Mason, she begins booking their wedding before the first date. But what transpires after the wedding is more than Clarissa and her girlfriends (the Star Chamber) could ever imagine. Although this book's promotional materials compares Clarissa to Cannie Shapiro, the delightful heroine of Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed, not much connects the two characters except that both women are Jewish and have food and father issues. Good in Bed is a wonderful novel, and we care about Cannie from the start, but Clarissa comes across as pathetic and juvenile. Intended as a satire of the L.A. scene, Maneater labors to be bold, brassy, and bitchy but is instead crude (it's full of the "f" word) and often tedious. Screenwriter (Stepmom) Grazer's second novel (after Rescue Me) is scheduled to become a motion picture. It could work as a film, but it doesn't work as a novel, so save your money. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 3/15/03.]-Rebecca Sturm Kelm, North Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
How to leapfrog through the Hollywood scene—using men as lily pads. It might be wise to beware of books by the wives of producers. But this spouse to Brian Grazer has not only written a real book but done so drawing on years of experience swimming with Hollywood sharks. For her second outing, Grazer (Rescue Me, 2000) introduces Clarissa Alpert, one of the most unapologetically horrendous little monsters to graze any novel's pages. Clarissa has never held a job beyond that of trying to land the right husband and is a full-fledged member of "the Army of Disinterest," a specifically LA type that Grazer characterizes by "ingrained laziness, a willingness to bestow blow jobs on men in powerful positions, and a sense of entitlement that only the insipid are privy to." Clarissa is taking part in her New Year's tradition, drinking at La Domaine and writing up her Man List, when her waiter friend drops a hint about one Aaron Mason: new in town, scion of a fabulously wealthy southern family and looking to break into the movie business. With Terminator-like precision, Clarissa locks on Aaron, using all the wiles of her daddy-funded, wonderfully licentious 28 (really 31) years, and bags her man. Sometime right after Aaron and Clarissa have had honeymoon sex, and after Clarissa has done what more she could to impregnate herself—involving some used condoms, a turkey baster, and a closed bathroom door—things deviate drastically from Clarissa's plan. Since this is only about a third of the way through the story, you might imagine that Clarissa is now about to learn some hard lessons about life. Fortunately, that never quite happens, and even as the trusted pillars of her comfortable, haute-couture life fall to the side, one by one, and she has to adjust (somewhat) to the real world, Grazer's satire never loses sight of the hilariously self-centered, devilish core of her creation's fierce personality. Mean-spirited, jaw-droppingly shallow, and hellaciously determined: Clarissa is one for the ages. Copyright ŠKirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Since Grazer wrote the original screenplay for Stepmom, it's no surprise that her protagonist is a Hollywood babe who has set her sites on a hot new director-who may be the first guy out of her reach. Film rights have been sold to Mandalay Entertainment. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publishers Weekly
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Masquerading as chick lit, this pitch-black comedy by Grazer (Rescue Me) is actually a scathing satire of L.A. society (to use the term loosely). Clarissa Alpert is 31-admitting-to-28, wears only Gucci and Prada, greets friend and foe alike with "a triple-cheek air kiss" and "had slept her way, without mercy, regret, mourning or conscience, through Greater Los Angeles." Her four best friends, less clever than she but equally venal, agree that Clarissa is the valedictorian of men. Among them, love is rare, but sex is plentiful and organized into a precise taxonomy that includes the "Curiosity Fuck," the "Boredom Fuck" and more. But lately Clarissa has decided that it's time to get married. Fortuitously, film-school grad and would-be producer Aaron Mason appears in her life. He's wearing cowboy boots (ugh), but driving a Bentley (her favorite car to be seen in); he's a foreigner (anyone born between California and New York is foreign), but the heir to a department store fortune. After her first sighting of him, Clarissa reserves the hotel and the florist and selects her Vera Wang wedding gown. Her divorced parents-amiable, chick-chasing father and "brittle-boned, anorexic, four-pack-a-day smoker Jewish mother"-bring their own demented enthusiasms to the matrimonial pursuit. In due course, the fanciest wedding of the season takes place despite the bride's refusal to sign a pre-nup. But this is only one-third of the way through the book, and as you might imagine, Clarissa doesn't quite live happily ever after. A true antiheroine, Clarissa, like the rest of the cast, is unapologetically loathsome. In lesser hands she would be merely irritating, but Grazer gives Clarissa just enough intelligence and spark to make her shameless antics deliciously entertaining. Agent, Jennifer Rudolph Walsh. (June) Forecast: Grazer, the screenwriter of Stepmom, is married to producer Brian Grazer (partner of Ron Howard). Maneater has already been optioned by Mandalay Pictures and promises to fare well on the big screen, so long as Hollywood can handle its sharp teeth. (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
