MARC Record from Library of Congress

LEADER: 03676cam a2200457 i 4500
001 2014041481
003 DLC
005 20150617080924.0
008 150226s2015 nyu b 000 0aeng
010 $a 2014041481
020 $a9781476762623 (hardcover)
020 $z9781476762722 (ebook)
040 $aDLC$beng$erda$cDLC$dDLC
042 $apcc
043 $an-us-ny
050 00 $aF128.68.U63$bM37 2015
082 00 $a974.7/1$223
084 $aBIO026000$aFAM032000$aSOC002010$2bisacsh
100 1 $aMartin, Wednesday.
245 10 $aPrimates of Park Avenue :$ba memoir /$cWednesday Martin, Ph.D.
250 $aFirst Simon & Schuster hardcover edition.
264 1 $aNew York :$bSimon & Schuster,$c2015.
300 $avii, 248 pages ;$c22 cm
336 $atext$btxt$2rdacontent
337 $aunmediated$bn$2rdamedia
338 $avolume$bnc$2rdacarrier
520 2 $a"Like an urban Dian Fossey, Wednesday Martin decodes the primate social behaviors of Upper East Side mothers in a brilliantly original and witty memoir about her adventures assimilating into that most secretive and elite tribe. After marrying a man from the Upper East Side and moving to the neighborhood, Wednesday Martin struggled to fit in. Drawing on her background in anthropology and primatology, she tried looking at her new world through that lens, and suddenly things fell into place. She understood the other mothers' snobbiness at school drop-off when she compared them to olive baboons. Her obsessional quest for a Hermes Birkin handbag made sense when she realized other females wielded them to establish dominance in their troop. And so she analyzed tribal migration patterns; display rituals; physical adornment, mutilation, and mating practices; extra-pair copulation; and more. Her conclusions are smart, thought-provoking, and hilariously unexpected. Every city has its Upper East Side, and in Wednesday's memoir, readers everywhere will recognize the strange cultural codes of powerful social hierarchies and the compelling desire to climb them. They will also see that Upper East Side mothers want the same things for their children that all mothers want--safety, happiness, and success--and not even sky-high penthouses and chauffeured SUVs can protect this ecologically released tribe from the universal experiences of anxiety and loss. When Wednesday's life turns upside down, she learns how deep the bonds of female friendship really are. Intelligent, funny, and heartfelt, Primates of Park Avenue lifts a veil on a secret, elite world within a world--the exotic, fascinating, and strangely familiar culture of privileged Manhattan motherhood"--$cProvided by publisher.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (pages 243-246).
505 0 $aComme il Faut -- Playdate Pariah -- Going Native : Mommy Wants a Birkin -- Manhattan Geisha -- Girls Club of Manhattan -- A Xanax and a Bloody Mary -- A Rainy Day -- Summary Fieldnotes.
600 10 $aMartin, Wednesday.
651 0 $aUpper East Side (New York, N.Y.)$vBiography.
651 0 $aNew York (N.Y.)$vBiography.
650 0 $aMothers$zNew York (State)$zNew York$vBiography.
650 0 $aMothers$zNew York (State)$zNew York$xSocial life and customs.
650 0 $aPrimates$xBehavior$vMiscellanea.
650 0 $aInterpersonal relations$zNew York (State)$zNew York.
651 0 $aUpper East Side (New York, N.Y.)$xSocial life and customs.
651 0 $aNew York (N.Y.)$xSocial life and customs.
650 7 $aBIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs.$2bisacsh
650 7 $aFAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Parenting / Motherhood.$2bisacsh
650 7 $aSOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural.$2bisacsh