From the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and author of the essay collection Shiksa Goddess (ôUtterly deliciousöùJudith Thurman), a dazzling debut novel, a comedy about New YorkÆs urban gentry living in a post-9/11 worldùthe arbiters of fashion and the doyennes of charity balls; about the rich and the nouveau rich(er), the glamorous and the desperate to be.

We meet Francesca Weissman, the Upper East Side pediatrician rated number one by Manhattan magazine, who takes us into the upper strata of privilege and aspiration (sheÆs originally from Queens with a father in hosiery; life on the fringes of glittering New York is fine with her) . . . Samantha Acton, thoroughbred descendant of the Van Rensselaers and the Carnegies, who defines the social order in the great tradition of Mrs. Astor and Babe Paley . . . Judy Tremont from Modesto, California, daughter of a copùher lifeÆs work, her obsession, is New York society and its richest families . . . Barry Santorini, Republican, moviemaker, winner of twelve Oscars, and his wife, the Italian supermarket heiress and former media rep for Giorgio Armani . . . and many more.

As Elements of Style opens out, we see a madcap mosaic of the social lives and mores of twenty-first century Manhattanùof romance, work, family, and friendship. Satiric, fierce, touchingùand deliciously Wasserstein.

ôPure Wendy! She effortlessly makes the leap from stage to page with a novel that is loving, compassionate, flat-out funny. Wendy loved the word æscintillating,Æ which is the best way to describe her stunning Elements of Style.ö
ùJohn Guare

ôWasserstein gets the trappings and tribulations (of friendship and of romance) right, making her depiction of the rich and fab trying to connect with one another witty and entertaining.ö
ùPublishers Weekly

ôBold, nimble, and funny to its fingertips, Elements of Style is a delight, a triumph. A book that no self-respecting New Yorker should be without. Those cursed with the hell of multiple residences will self-evidently need several copiesùand spares, for houseguests.ö
ùFlora Fraser