The Playgroup: A Novel

By Nelsie Spencer

Book Overview

Before she signed up for the mommy role, Ellie Fuller was a stand-up comic, a good best friend, and on her way to substantial success in the TV world. Then good-looking Peter came along, and she was quick to succumb. Marriage redefined her personal landscape with a vengeance, and with what now seems like super speed, she's become a constantly nursing, sleep-deprived, double-stroller pushing mother of two on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Ellie loves her life. Doesn't she? She's about to find out. Day One of pre-school for her daughter, Ahnika. As Ellie gathers with the other moms on the stately steps of Park Avenue Playgroup, she meets ice princess Missy Hanover. Missy is tall. Missy is tan. Missy is the kind of woman who looks gorgeous even in running clothes. And, to Ellie's surprise, Missy looks vaguely familiar. They must have met before. But where? Missy decides that she and Ellie should be friends-close friends. As the school year progresses, Ellie finds herself pulled deeper, sometimes unwillingly, into Missy's Upper East Side world. From the rarefied, moneyed land of Hermes scarves and elaborate birthday parties for three year-olds, into the hidden reaches of a married woman's mind and the secrets of Ellie's past, "The Playgroup" shows what really goes on when the kids are in school.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312311729
• ISBN13: 9780312311728
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.4"

Customer Reviews

Not What It Seems

Obviously senior citizens were not the original target audience for The Playgroup. The title is clever, but misleading. I thought it was going to be a novel about the stresses and strains of young motherhood. The Playgroup is definitely not a `lite read.' It is a coming-of-age novel for young mothers, but - - Be prepared! For some in Middle America, I imagine it will have the shock value of a Francois Sagan or a James Baldwin novel. The story line, character development and the issues kept me hooked. I even shed a few tears toward the end, and there were moments when I couldn't put it down. This is a novel that dramatizes, in a realistic and readable style, how a hip West Sider deals with her angst and a situation I could never have envisioned when I was the age of the protagonist. It is about a very angry young women who gradually, over the course of a year, takes on responsibility for her own behavior and begins, after a critical slip, to make more healthy life choices. I particularly liked the evolving mother-daughter dialogue and the mother's insights about how `A doesn't necessarily mean B'. Here is the mother talking:`Well, I used to think, for instance, if A - your father got indicted, it would mean B - I couldn't love him anymore......But A happened. He got indicted and - guess what? I still loved him. He got indicted and all that meant was - he got indicted. Or, I thought if, A - I stop drinking, then B - my life will work and everything will be okay. But I stopped drinking and all it meant was - I had stopped drinking. ... I still had an ex-husband in jail and an angry adolescent daughter and ..." This is an important life lesson that we each have to remind ourselves every day of our lives.

Much better than the other "mommie" novels...

I wasn't surprised that The Playgroup was funny and sexy... but I was surprised that it also dared to explore much more interesting questions than other "light read" Nanny Diaries-style novels. Even as it made me laugh out loud, The Playgroup brought out deeper and sometimes sadder issues for its mommy-protagonist... addressing difficulties I think will be familiar to any modern urban woman: How do we reconcile our "hip" exterior vision of ourselves with our fragile inner search for identity and love? The review from Ashland is so right... this book will easily make a great movie!

nannie diaries plus

this is a real page-turner--funny, hip, edgy, but with darker themes. ellie is a tough but vulnerable heroine and she takes the reader into her view of Manhattan east/west side mommydom and her unique (?) experiences there. Pitch-perfect for her age-group. don't miss this one!!!

Sexy, funny, serious, should be a movie

Nelsie Spencer's "The Playgroup" catches you off guard -- it's not just a social satire, but also an exploration of motherhood, marriage, expressions of love in all its forms, self-denial and revelation. It's a brave book and a grand achievement for Spencer. Someone should make a movie out of this.

The Playgroup Rocks

Drawn by the sexy cover art, I was well pleased by "The Playgroup". It's really, really funny, but with a pulsing undercurrent of dysfunction. (I wanted to SHOOT her mother Sara- the scenes between her and her daughter Ellie ALONE make this book worthwhile). I found it heartbreaking, tender, and outrageous. You won't be bored, or disappointed- the author obviously has extensive experience in "WaspWorld" and skewers it deftly. I also love the scene where she tapes a gift box to her behindular area as a birthday gift for her dreamy hubby Peter (the "Lyon Burke" of the new millenium) Bravo "The Playgroup"!