Editorial Content for Palm Beach
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Reviewer (text)
Set among the fabulously wealthy Palm Beach residents, Mary Adkins’ novel follows a young couple who, with their toddler, Bash, leave Queens when Mickey takes a job working as a house manager for a wealthy acquaintance. Soon he’s lured away by an even wealthier neighbor, Cecil Stone, at twice the salary.
Mickey had been a rising Broadway star until an operation damaged his vocal cords --- though he still dreams of returning to the stage. Rebecca, a journalist who writes a column on income inequality for New York magazine, objects to this at first. But the money is too good, and when she gets recruited by Cecil’s wife, Astrid, to ghostwrite her memoir, she begins to engage with the very people she had been busily judging.
"What saves PALM BEACH, and Rebecca, from being insufferable is an unexpected storyline that evolves into an intriguing debate about what really matters --- and what price you would pay to get it."
Then a medical crisis hits, and the Stones come to Rebecca and Mickey’s rescue, bringing in experts and paying their exorbitant bills. As they become more dependent on the Stones, Rebecca has to reckon with the tensions between her self-righteous disdain for the wealthy, and her dawning appreciation for how money and its consequent comforts can be used. Before long, her own interest in accruing wealth is piqued --- with potentially disastrous consequences.
There are several colorful characters here, including the Stones’ chef, Paul, and Cecil’s ne’er-do-well brother, Bruce. But Mickey and Rebecca feel isolated, both because they don’t belong to the milieu in which they find themselves, and because parenthood has separated them from many of their old friends. Readers may also find that they have an equal amount of ambivalence towards Rebecca as she has towards her new employers. Not only is she judgmental about the wealthy men and women whom she meets through the Stones, she is also rigid about her own virtue.
Determined not to leave her child with a sitter for even a few hours, Rebecca has Mickey look after their son while working so that she can meet with Astrid --- even after Astrid has asked the kindly housekeeper to look after him in the room next door. When she calls her mother after a silence of four months, she is barely affected by the news that their farm just went into foreclosure. The reason they had stopped talking was that she disapproved of their raising cattle --- she’s a vegan --- and hadn’t sent them so much as a picture of their grandchild in the ensuing months.
What saves PALM BEACH, and Rebecca, from being insufferable is an unexpected storyline that evolves into an intriguing debate about what really matters --- and what price you would pay to get it.
Teaser
Rebecca and her husband, Mickey, typify struggling, 30-something New Yorkers --- he’s an actor, and she’s a freelance journalist. But after the arrival of their baby son, the couple decides to relocate to Palm Beach, where Mickey has been offered a sweet deal managing the household of a multimillionaire Democratic donor. Once there, he quickly doubles his salary by going to work for venture capitalist Cecil Stone. Rebecca, a writer whose beat is economic inequality, is initially horrified: she pillories men like Stone, a ruthless businessman famous for crushing local newspapers. So no one is more surprised than her when she accepts a job working for Cecil’s wife as a ghostwriter. As she and Mickey are pulled deeper into this topsy-turvy household, they become increasingly dependent on their problematic benefactors.
Promo
Rebecca and her husband, Mickey, typify struggling, 30-something New Yorkers --- he’s an actor, and she’s a freelance journalist. But after the arrival of their baby son, the couple decides to relocate to Palm Beach, where Mickey has been offered a sweet deal managing the household of a multimillionaire Democratic donor. Once there, he quickly doubles his salary by going to work for venture capitalist Cecil Stone. Rebecca, a writer whose beat is economic inequality, is initially horrified: she pillories men like Stone, a ruthless businessman famous for crushing local newspapers. So no one is more surprised than her when she accepts a job working for Cecil’s wife as a ghostwriter. As she and Mickey are pulled deeper into this topsy-turvy household, they become increasingly dependent on their problematic benefactors.
About the Book
A thought-provoking page-turner from the author of WHEN YOU READ THIS and PRIVILEGE that captures the painful divide between the haves and have-nots and the seductive lure of the American dream.
Living in a tiny Queens apartment, Rebecca and her husband, Mickey, typify struggling, 30-something New Yorkers --- he’s an actor, and she’s a freelance journalist. But after the arrival of their baby son, the couple decides to pack up and head for sunny, comfortable Palm Beach, where Mickey has been offered a sweet deal managing the household of a multimillionaire Democratic donor.
Once there, he quickly doubles his salary by going to work for a billionaire: venture capitalist Cecil Stone. Rebecca, a writer whose beat is economic inequality, is initially horrified: she pillories men like Stone, a ruthless businessman famous for crushing local newspapers. So no one is more surprised than her when she accepts a job working for Cecil’s wife as a ghostwriter, thinking of the excellent pay and the rare, inside look at this famous Forbes-list family. What she doesn’t expect is that she’ll grow close to the Stones, or become a regular at their high-powered dinners. And when a medical crisis hits, it’s the Stones who come to their rescue, using their power, influence and wealth to avert catastrophe.
As she and Mickey are both pulled deeper into this topsy-turvy household, they become increasingly dependent on their problematic benefactors. Then when she discovers a shocking secret about the Stones, Rebecca will have to decide: how many compromises can one couple make?
Audiobook available, read by Stacey Glemboski
