Sitting Down with Prospect Park West Penner
The Times gets up close and personal with Prospect Park West author and Park Slope resident Amy Sohn today, talking playground politics and parenting roles. The book has garnered its fair share of attention, not only because it was snapped up by Sarah Jessica Parker who plans to turn it into the Brooklyn version of…
The Times gets up close and personal with Prospect Park West author and Park Slope resident Amy Sohn today, talking playground politics and parenting roles. The book has garnered its fair share of attention, not only because it was snapped up by Sarah Jessica Parker who plans to turn it into the Brooklyn version of Sex in the City, but because it plays with and on so many of the stereotypes that abound about Park Slope. From The Times…
“The attractive female characters deem themselves too cool for the neighborhood (one thinks of it as Park Slob), while those who embrace the area are often characterized as smothering and semi-pathetic, reading self-help books like Great Sex For Moms: Ten Steps to Nurturing Passion While Raising Kids. Park Slope’s liberal values are also lampooned; a controversy erupts at the local food co-op over racial profiling.
Other true-to-life tidbits—like the ad for swingers posted on the Park Slope Parents message board—also make it into the book, which is sure to make it a guilty pleasure for anyone who loves, or loves to hate, the Slope. Anyone actually read the thing? Sounds like guilty-pleasure, end-of-summer reading to us.
A Park Slope Novel Seems a Little Too Real [NY Times]
Photo by Robert Catalano
i was partially kidding. i dont care if someone breastfeeds in public. i do think it’s narsty tho, but if someone wants to do it fine.
formula babies wind up being more creative later in life studies show however.
*rob*
Way to live and let live, rob. Sheesh.
She comes across kind of reactionary in that article. I always took her for an airheaded “I will conquer New York and never stop telling you about it” type but I’m favorably impressed with that article, she actually seems pensive and reflective.
Wasder –
Anyone who is against breastfeeding in public is – either:
Gay
infertile
parent of slow child (due to formula feeding)
or
has nasty flap-jackety tits that they’d never ever show in public
i do NOT want to see breastesses while im eating. im sorry. im not uptight either. i just think it’s gross. since it’s so natural.. would i be allowed to rub one out in a restaurant? that’s natural too you know! i know, that’s a stretch, but still.
*rob*
I read it over the long weekend and thought it did a pretty good job of lampooning some of the neighborhood’s collective neuroses. It’s obviously no great work of literature, but I don’t think anyone reads it expecting that. People who want it to be some nuanced portrayal of life in the slope ( cough, cough, Louise Crawford) will have their outrage frequency tweaked.
My favorite bit was some dialogue that between two characters (who are paraphrasing a line from that movie ‘Singles’) It goes something like, ‘First of all, you have an act, and second of all, hating on Park Slope is your act.’
I think she got at least a few people’s numbers with that one.
Sounds like she has a little trouble being one of the people she characterizes. Still, plenty that someone like myself can relate to in that milieu. Though I don’t live in the slope there are plenty of familiar stereotypes in Clinton Hill parents. One thing I wonder, why is it such a big deal to have a breast feeding friendly restaurant? I can’t believe some people are so uptight about breast feeding.
Rob, have you read anything of hers?
‘My Old Man’ was pretty funny, imo. Not deep lit, but funny nevertheless.
Brownstoner’s Law: any post with the words “Park Slope” and “Mom” will draw over 75 comments.
Why bother reading it, when you live it? I can make fun of my own life, thank you very much.