Interesting insights from the New York Times

I found this 2005 article from the New York Times about TDWP author Lauren Weisberger intriguing. In addition to some biographical detail (always good to know) there are some comments on her appeal, as well as her target audience:

For Ms. Weisberger, it's a fairy tale that depends in some part on her never quite getting the gold ring, or if she does, never being able to actually wear it. It's important to her to keep her outsider's vantage despite the fact that she is more and more of an insider. The heroines of her novels are outsiders who are beautiful and witty enough to gain entry into exclusive and seemingly glamorous cliques - and sane enough to leave them. If there is an art here (and she is the first to admit she is not trying to write "War and Peace"), it is the ability to write knowingly about a shallow yet glamorous world while appealing to a slightly provincial point of view.

Ms. Weisberger isn't writing primarily for the chic Manhattan young women who populate, as she once did, the editing ranks of fashion and celebrity magazines. The people who have made her books best sellers are outsiders who long for access, people for whom New York City is sexy but vaguely sinister.

I have seen similar comments made about David Sedaris, a writer even more spectacularly successful, but equally committed to the voice of the outsider. They both have new books out, too, and come September they will both have been honored by inclusion on our book club list. Hmmmm ...