Research Catalog

Primates of Park Avenue : a memoir

Title
Primates of Park Avenue : a memoir / Wednesday Martin, Ph.D.
Author
Martin, Wednesday
Publication
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2015.

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Additional Authors
Bibliotheca (Firm)
Description
1 online resource
Summary
"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"--
Subject
  • Martin, Wednesday
  • Mothers > New York > Biography
  • Mothers > New York > Social life and customs
  • Primates > Behavior > Miscellanea
  • Interpersonal relations > New York
  • Upper East Side (New York, N.Y.) > Biography
  • New York (N.Y.) > Biography
  • Upper East Side (New York, N.Y.) > Social life and customs
  • New York (N.Y.) > Social life and customs
Note
  • Electronic book.
Reproduction (note)
  • Electronic reproduction.
Contents
Comme 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.
ISBN
9781476762722 (electronic bk.)
OCLC
erc0000365300
Author
Martin, Wednesday, author.
Title
Primates of Park Avenue : a memoir / Wednesday Martin, Ph.D.
Publisher
New York : Simon & Schuster, 2015.
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
computer
Type of Carrier
online resource
Digital File Characteristics
text file
Reproduction
Electronic reproduction. [S.l.] Simon & Schuster 2015 Available via World Wide Web.
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Added Author
Bibliotheca (Firm)
Branch Call Number
eNYPL Book
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