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HIGH MAINTENANCE is the welcome return of the fresh-voiced Jennifer
Belle. It is just as funny, sarcastic, colorful and appealing as her breakthrough novel
GOING DOWN.
If there is anything that we New Yorkers know it's real estate. We talk about it almost
incessantly, freely discussing rent and rodents and Realtors. We know the ins and outs of
finding a place almost as well as the people to whom we pay a lot of money to find places
for us. Almost all of us could very well be real estate brokers if our other careers ---
or marriages, as in Liv Kellerman's case --- don't work out.
Liv Kellerman is a young woman who has just left her husband of five years and, most
importantly, their luxurious penthouse apartment with an Empire State Building view.
Insane you say? Welcome to the life of Liv. Now on her own for the first time, she
relocates to a crumbling Greenwich Village hovel where she contemplates her next move.
Finding real estate to be her true calling --- she can lie with a straight face --- she is
soon among the hard-core brokers of New York City. Along her way to the top of their food
chain, she picks up an attached architect with a penchant for biting, two or three insane
bosses, a gun, and some petulant clients.
For most New Yorkers, it is almost a requirement to thrive on drama in order to survive.
Lord knows just hailing a cab takes a certain mastery of the craft (and cleavage doesn't
hurt). All of Belle's ebullient characters have plenty of drama and humanity. They are
instantly recognizable. They are the kind of people who make you say, "Oh My God,
Jennifer Belle and I must know the same people," as you read about their trials and
triumphs. And, in effect, you probably do --- because Jennifer Belle really knows people.
Belle truly has a talent for characterization. Even the supporting characters live in
Technicolor in her world. Liv is funny, smart and real. She is very much like most of the
women I know, all of us trying to find where we fit in a city --- or a life --- that is
too big for us. She has the perfect sarcastic unaffected New Yorker tone to her voice and
just the right amount of angst. And then there's Andrew. He's the perfect example of what
single women in New York (or anywhere for that matter) fear. He is doting, accomplished,
rich and insane. And don't get me started on the emotional baggage he carries. It's all
there in his journal.
The chapter titles are great, although those among you readers who do not look at the
classified section of the New York Times every day searching for a great deal on a
rent-stabilized apartment with a doorman and a view of the park (let me know if you find
one) may have a hard time deciphering them.
There is a nice cyclical effect in the plot when Liv realizes that Andrew's
"Jordan" is her first boss' perfect reader --- her first boss being a blind
judge. And as a reader, I was so blinded by the neuroses of Liv's clients and all of the
other problems with Andrew that I forgot that detail. It was a pleasing reminder and very
well executed.
In the end, hit by a bike messenger --- arguably the worst thing in New York --- the city
is getting to Liv. But as she says, "There are no other cities." This must be
the mantra of New York. Once here, there's really nowhere else on the planet as vivid,
dirty, fun, real, hard, pleasing or New York as New York.
As the materials accompanying the book suggest, HIGH MAINTENANCE is another
brilliantly twisted New York Story. But it is certain to appeal to those outside of New
York by merit of its wit and pervasive humor. And though I may be afraid to find someone
like Andrew, I may have to look for a new apartment...because as Liv realizes, "for a
single girl in New York there is no such thing as living too far south." Maybe she
has some leads.
--- Reviewed by Josette Kurey
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