Primates of Park Avenue

Adventures Inside the Secret Sisterhood of Manhattan Moms

De: Wednesday Martin Ph.D.

Narrado por: Madeleine Maby

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 listeners 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.

©2015 Wednesday Martin. All rights reserved. (P)2015 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Interesting almost scientific read

As someone who has studied anthropology I found this book an interesting read. It is simple enough for someone with no background but I the parts I enjoyed most were her 'field notes' on the costuming of her tribe. Overall it's a more cerebral than your average chick lit but would never the less fit loosely into that category.

Tedious yet compelling

Part comedy and part social commentary, this memoir is indulgent and high brow. While its pop culture anecdotes and references are amusing, I found all the anthropologic details a bit too tedious and detailed. The author beleaguers certain points not requiring such long explanations. I would have loved to have heard more personal experience and stories versus broad conclusions but in the end it was entertaining if not predictable.

Witty.

I thought the book moved quickly, the balance of anecdotes to anthropological speak was on point and some of the stories made me laugh out loud. Would recommend. I enjoyed the narrator.

Everything

I felt like I was living her experience as she is talking. I was anxious, confident, sad and angry!! Such an eye opener to the private lives of UES.

Interesting take on the upper east side...

Although the timeline was a little bit jumpy. One minute the writer is walking to her fitness class in the Hamptons and next she is in a car fighting for a parking space to get to the same class she was just walking to.

A little stretched for dramatic moments at times but has real moments as the story moves along.

Listened to as recommended from other audible

I did purchase this audible book as it was recommended by the author of another audible book I listened to. At first I wasn't sure if it was what I was expecting and it wasn't, but I did complete it and so glad I did. you really must listen all the way to the end! No spoilers here.

Great book

This book was amazing! Great summer read I loved this book because I dream one day to live in Manhattan. But for the time being I’ll just live upstate NY where I live

Entho-tainment at its best

Although the reading was staccato at times, Martin's voice pulls through. This is an ideal introduction to anthropology and a glimpse into the ways elite Mommy's make sense of and navigate their world. It is both critical and generous at times - as good ethnography is. It is not traditional anthro-vetted by IRBs and underscored by dense theory- but it is approachable and entertaining and is quite good ethnography, earning its place alongside monographs ideal for intro to cultural or intro to anthro courses.

Don't Expect The Devil Wears Prada

I hadn't read detailed reviews of this book and was pleasantly surprised by the anthropological slant Martin takes in her content. She moves from downtown Manhattan to Park Avenue, which is akin to taking up residence in a foreign country. An outsider wanting and needing to make friends for herself and her children, she has to learn to fit in.

These very, very wealthy Upper East Side young mothers are part of a social hierarchy that's tough to crack. Using her education and experiences as an anthropologist, Martin analyzes the women's behavior, likening it to scholarly studies of female apes. She does what is necessary (like buying an outrageously expensive purse) to blend in and go native.

These young women who have everything money can buy are, you'll learn, under enormous pressures I am happy not to have in my own life. I clench my teeth enough in my relatively ordinary existence. You will also learn how much you have in common with them, and all women, no matter where you live or what's in your wallet.

Good concept, but poor execution

Any additional comments?

I thought this book started out with a great concept (who doesn't love anthropological studies?), but found the execution off-putting. The narrator is constantly asking for the reader's sympathy because of her "outsider" status. She gains that sympathy for the five minutes in which the Manhattan moms she is "studying" shun her and push her off of sidewalks, then promptly loses it for the remainder of the book, as she tries to convince us that she is "not like these other moms" because she only has ONE $8,000 handbag, while they have five, or because she attends pricey exercise classes only once a day, while some mothers attend them TWICE a day! Imagine! The book ends with a cop-out ending and conclusion that I won't spoil, but I will say was a letdown. If you don't want to suffer irrational rage at the author's conspicuous consumption, I'd avoid this one.