Jonathan VatnerRezensionen

Adored this. Adored the slightly-more-literary prose, adored the mix of old and young characters, adored the poignant treatment of race especially. Some truly lovely insights into the human psyche and the power money has.

A rather vapid novel of manners about the residents of a stodgy Manhattan Co-op.. The main character is a young woman of extreme privilege who has never worked a day in her life and is terrified of what people (especially her parents) think of her. Her transformation into a functioning human is neither believable or realistic. Skip this one.

While there are some problems with Jonathan Vatner's first novel, it's a refreshing change from the traditional confines of "chick lit" where plot always hinges on "getting the man". Carnegie Hill asks "Do you really want the man?" It's easy to get lost in this book because there are too many competing points of view...which also limits the character development of each...but this book is notable for delving into the mind of a character who might be presented as nothing but a cad in another book.

I hate to say it, but I think my new favorite author of "Chick Lit" is a man. I feel a little bit better when I read up on Jonathan Vatner and found out that he is gay. I mean, seriously...the thought of a straight man understanding women this well is a little scary. Also, if his name were Jonathan Vitner (which is how I tried to write it), that would be perfect.

"The Bridesmaid's Union" is about a woman who can't express how she feels to anyone in person so puts it all in to a Facebook group she starts. Normally, I don't like this kind of thing, but I fell into it somehow, and I came to appreciate Vatner's approach to what it means to be female. Oh, and guess what? The closest thing to a villain in this book is a gay guy. And it's a type of gay guy that I have totally encountered in my life, and boy, did it ring true. "The Bridesmaid's Union" is a great poolside read that won't make you hate yourself in the morning. I'm currently listening to Vatner's first book, "Carnegie Hill",so check in to see how that goes.

This book is definitely out of my usual reading choices but every now and then I take a chance on a synopsis that sounds like fun and in this case I was rewarded with a very entertaining novel. This isn’t a deep and thoughtful book nor is it ever going to be a great literary award winner.

What you get with this book is a fun story that is very relatable to anyone who has ever been a bridesmaid. Although I have to admit that back in the days when I was being a bridesmaids weddings weren’t as dramatic as they are now.

I didn’t have to deal with destination weddings or showers in faraway cities so it was far easier (and cheaper) to be a bridesmaid for friends and family. Iris, on the other hand, the heroine of this novel deals with far more weddings and showers than I ever had to.

The novel details her trials as the always a bridesmaid trailing after very demanding brides. This leads her to start an online support group that gets just a little out of hand. I won’t write more than that so as to not spoil the book. But know that that it’s a fun read for anyone who has ever been a bridesmaid.

I read this on my train ride from Brattleboro to Philadelphia and the time flew by and I was very entertained the whole way. It’s a novel that follows a typical pattern but the characters within are well developed and fun. I enjoyed it and the miles flew by as I traveled to visit my family.½

This is a fun read about Iris who feels like she is always a bridesmaid and the brides don't appreciate what she does to help or the fact that she's in deep credit card debt due to her being a bridesmaid so many times. She has terrible parents who want her to get married and don't seem to care about her at all. She also a younger sister, Jasmine, who is getting married and asks Iris to be maid of honor. There is another sister who pretty much stays away from the family. Plus Iris has a kindergarten age son, who seems to be out of control and is getting bullied because he doesn't have a father. After Iris's last wedding as bridesmaid, she starts a Facebook group for people to share the awful things that have happened to them when they were bridesmaids. It seems to help her a lot to hear their stories but even though she is not happy with her previous stints as bridesmaid, she agrees to be the maid of honor for her estranged sister. There is some humor in this book but most of the story is about Iris and her struggles in her single life.

This book was filled with family drama. I didn't like Iris's parents at all and it was easy to dislike Iris at times. She had a real problem making decisions and standing up for herself. She's also a bit naive - she seemed to have no filters when she was complaining in her facebook group and never worried about the possibility of the group becoming public and the bride's becoming aware of what was said about them. She also became good friends with one of the posters in the group and we all know how risky that is.

I did enjoy many of the parts of the book but didn't appreciate all of the mentions of politics - her parents and sister were Trump supporters and she was an anyone but Trump voter. Similar to many people in the country, Iris and her sister became estranged over the election and lack of understanding of each other's views. I also enjoyed Iris's relationship with her son. She had such bad parents that it was good to see she didn't inherit their way of parenting. This book was also a bit too long. I think that some of the side stories could be left out to make the book more interesting.

Overall, I thought that this was a good book and despite the reservations that I've mentioned, I'm glad that I read it and look forward to future books from this author.

Thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Brides can often demand more than is reasonable, or even possible, and expect their bridesmaids to support them no matter how ridiculous the bride is being. In THE BRIDESMAIDS UNION, by Jonathan Vatner, Iris Hagarty creates a Facebook group to vent about her experiences as a bridesmaid. It gives her instant relief and seeing other's crazy experiences help her feel less alone. As the Facebook group grows and Iris becomes maid of honor, Iris' life quickly becomes complicated and she is barely holding on. Will Iris be able to balance everything or is a collapse inevitable?
Vatner has singular wit and style to this book. Iris Hagarty is clearly the focus of the book, but Vatner creates a true kaleidoscope of characters around Iris. All of them are clearly described and quickly the reader can begin to predict how each person will react to each situation. The fascinating part of the book is that Vatner posits Iris as the variable. As much as the reader gets to know Iris, her life is in such a state of flux and her vision of the future so muddled that Iris is quite unpredictable. That unpredictability is what makes every interaction exciting and keeps the reader on their toes as to what is going to happen. Vatner touches on some current issues, like social media perception vs reality of a person and how conflict can arise is families were there political views don't align, but I found myself wanting to spend as much time with Iris as possible and where her life is going and I wanted to push aside anything that wasn't about her directly.
Everyone has come across a bridezilla at some point and THE BRIDESMAIDS UNION looks at how people handle them A reader will enjoy considering which approach is best when reading this book and perhaps revaluate their stance.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Jonathan Vatner, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Please note that I received this book via NetGalley. This did not affect my rating or review.

How was this tagged as a romance? I guess train-wreck was too on point. Seriously though, I ended up loathing 99 percent of the characters in this book. Even the one person I didn't loathe, I seriously disliked because he outed someone. I am surprised this wasn't an Oprah Book Pick since every time she loves a book I usually have this reaction to the book.

"Carnegie Hill" follows the residents and a man who works at a co-op in New York. Yeah. I am trying to come up with something pithy here, but that's all I got. Vatner switches POVs from various people throughout this book. We have Pepper (trying to go as Penelope) Bradford newly engaged to Rick. We have Pepper and Rick's next door neighbors, Birdie and George. We also have Francis and his wife Carol. We also follow a porter that works at the building, Caleb.

Pepper was exhausting. She is an heiress based on context clues and doesn't have a job. Though she's had other relationships end due to her parents commentary, she's happy and in love with Rick. Moving into Carnegie Hill she has a chance to prove to them that she can do something meaningful and joins the co-op board. Of course she finds out that the board is full of a lot of elderly residents who seem okay with the co-op being predominantly white. Pepper is what I call white outraged. Angry about it, but really doesn't try to do anything except complain about others. She's also beyond exhausting about people having "secrets." This is mentioned throughout the book. I really wanted to tell Pepper that's called boundaries and mind her own damn business.

Pepper's fiancee Rick was a hot mess. No spoilers, but what the hell. At one point I wondered if this author was taking a jab at therapy or what because what some of them were saying had me going the hell.

Birdie is trying to get her recently retired (or told to retired or be fired) husband George to take an interest in his life again. She wants them to move back to Canada or just do anything else. Instead George spends a lot of his time sleeping and avoiding leaving their apartment. I don't even know what to say. Birdie read as heartless and George was a confusing character to me. I don't know what he wanted exactly. I get feeling like it wasn't fair that he was pushed out of his job and then the next one he took he was fired from due to him not getting technology. But the spiral felt so fast to me as a reader. And then it just continues for about a year.

Francis, also exhausting. He's similar to Pepper wanting to complain about the rich and elite but not do much about it. Him trying to get Caleb to read books and acting as if he understood his life was....well it was something.

Caleb seemed to be there to give the everyday man's perspective, but I found his world view to be too simplistic too.

There are secondary characters in this one (too numerous to count) and they jumble through the characters stories. Everyone started to read as a caricature to me after a while. I really started to cringe every time Pepper and Rick popped up because I just needed a break from that slow moving disaster.

I have to say that the writing wasn't that great. I think switching from Pepper, to Birdie, George, Francis, Rick, and Caleb didn't help. I honestly had no energy for half of the characters and the lies and mess they were telling themselves and others. The whole book felt disjointed and read like a bad play. I don't know if Vatner was going for something humorous or what. Or was trying to say something pointed. Whatever it was, it flew over my head. Oh wait, it made marriage seem like a hellscape of never ending snide remarks and anger that the person that you married isn't doing exactly what you want in the moment though you are constantly changing your mind.



The flow was not good. The character POVs were lopsided. We spent most of the book with Pepper. I don't know if this could have been fixed if we just stayed with Pepper and Rick or what. Everyone was so underdeveloped.

The book takes place in New York over the course of a year I think. Though a few places are mentioned like Central Park, for the most part the book doesn't do a great job of exploring New York. Everything felt claustrophobic after a while since everything takes place in apartments or at therapist offices.

The ending felt unfinished to me.

Overall, a solid debut novel by Vatner but rather a slog to read. Overall, this seems to be a novel about various forms of partnerships/relationships if you will. Relationships include marriage, betrothals and just getting off the ground twosomes. Then there are the familial relationships, work relationships etc etc.
It is a very good basis for a story - it's just rather long winded and the characters didn't draw me in, some were rather predictable.
Writing about many owners in an apartment building is a tough task so I would read Vatner's next novel in the hopes he pares down his story to one or two less directions and more character development.
Thank you NetGalley, author and publisher an advanced copy of this book.

CARNEGIE HILL, by Jonathan Vatner, focuses on Penelope "Pepper" Bradford, a woman, at age thrity-three, whose maturity to adulthood has been stilted by her spoiled upbringing. Pepper has recently moved with her fiancé, Rick, into the Chelmsford Arms, an elite and expensive co-op building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Pepper has a new home, a new man, and is in a new chapter in her life. As Pepper wades through all of this, she finds out that what she should want and what her soul tells her she wants are two different things.
Vatner creates a world within the walls of Chelmsford Arms of the financially elite lifestyle in New York City. Pepper is a well-developed and layered main character, but unfortunately at times comes off as unappealingly spoiled and unaware of how the world works around her. Vatner does do an excellent job, though, of creating a wonderful cast of supporting characters in the building, all of which are likable in their own way. As the story progresses, the reader is rewarded with the emotional growth of many of the people around Pepper and although there are some uncomfortable but captivating turns towards the end of the book, the novel ends on a hopeful note for everyone.
CARNEGIE HILL is an entertaining and insightful book about the New York elite and also reminds us that everyone can grow as people now matter how much money or how old you are.
Thank you to Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press, Jonathan Vatner, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I had high hopes for this book - smashed to smithereens. Everyone was unlikeable, everyone was damaged, entitled, and name dropping all over the place. There is a love story that destructs by being “dismantled from the inside”. Oversexed, crazy sexed, not enough sex, “vulgar and morally suspect” - and that is the author’s description so where can we possibly go from there?!

The story was a shade wide of believable. A newbie with no career, no credits, and less experience elected to the Board of a stodgy old coop in NYC. I suppose it happens but gaining the upper hand and taking over, that’s is a large stretch. A husband who can’t keep it in his pants, a gay couple struggling not to be outed while wanting to be “out”. Everything in this book was out of nowhere and everything gets thrown into the mix and thrown at the wall to see if anything will stick.

I received this book from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press in exchange for an honest review.

This is the story of people who live and work in a New York City apartment building. This is a character driven novel full of well developed interesting people. There are marital and health issues, political intrigue and love and romance (not much). I figure that this book would be particularly relevant to big city apartment dwellers. As a suburban single family home liver in the Midwest though I enjoyed the novel did not resonate with me as it might have. Still worth reading.

This book is not a comedy. It's basically a narrative about a bunch of people that live in the same building in New York, and all their first world problems. I couldn't relate to the characters at all.