“PRIMATES OF PARK AVENUE” by Wednesday Martin

New York is a world in another world.
The people who live in Manhattan represent a significant part of the wealthiest 1% of the richest in the world.

Written by Wednesday Martin, an anthropologist with first-hand information about this particular world (she is the second wife of a rich man), this book is an intensive and detailed course about the perpetual work that needs to be done by the spouse of a wealthy American man:

She ought to be slim and fit (at least, as good as a professional ballerina). Otherwise:
“Men seemed always to be looking beyond you, to see if there was a woman who was better or prettier or more important than you at the party or in the room.”

She ought to have beautiful clothes and to wear killer high-heels (there is an injection that numbs a woman’s feet for her to be able to wear high heels all night long 🙂 ).

She ought to make sure that their children will be accepted in the right schools and that the parents of their children’s friends are significant people:
“You are only as fabulous as the playdates you procure on behalf of your progeny, and if you don’t rate, neither does your cherub.”

She ought to be forever YOUNG.

“In spite of all the hot bodies artfully displayed, there was not a lot of sexiness in the air.
I was stunned by the luck of playful interactions between men and women. What, I wondered, was the point of life and having a body you worked on like crazy if you didn’t have fun flirting?”

“In fact, the exercise and careful attention to dress seemed to take the place of sex in fundamental ways.
Women were too tired, too stressed, too irritated for sex in Manhattan, they all seemed to agree when we talked about it over dinner or drinks.”

And the author’s conclusion:
“This, I learned, was the women’s code. They strove equally to be beautiful for the men who were not there and for the women who were.”

Kindle, 2015