Everybody Rise

A Novel

De: Stephanie Clifford

Narrado por: Katherine Kellgren

An instant New York Times best seller!

Chosen as one of Summer's Best Books by People magazine

Featured in Time magazine's Summer Reading

Entertainment Weekly's Summer Must List

Good Housekeeping Beach Reads Feature

"A witty tale about a high-society wannabe... Little is more delicious than watching an ambitious but tragically flawed protagonist brought down - especially in a designer cocktail dress." (The Washington Post)

Everyone yearns to belong, to be part of the "in crowd", but how far are you willing to go to be accepted? In the case of bright, funny, and socially ambitious Evelyn Beegan, the answer is much too far....

At 26, Evelyn is determined to carve her own path in life and free herself from the influence of her social-climbing mother, who propelled her through prep school and onto New York's glamorous Upper East Side. Evelyn has long felt like an outsider to her privileged peers, but when she gets a job at a social network aimed at the elite, she's forced to embrace them.

Recruiting new members for the site, Evelyn steps into a promised land of Adirondack camps, Newport cottages, and Southampton clubs thick with socialites and Wall Streeters. Despite herself, Evelyn finds the lure of belonging intoxicating and starts trying to pass as old money herself. When her father, a crusading class-action lawyer, is indicted for bribery, Evelyn must contend with her own family's downfall as she keeps up appearances in her new life, grasping with increasing desperation as the ground underneath her begins to give way.

©2015 Stephanie Clifford (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"...the performance is ferociously entertaining, and the intensity of Kellgren's reading propels the plot in a way that is well-nigh irresistible." (AudioFile)

Good book - annoying narrater

Liked the story line quite a bit- had to stop listening at times with the narration- too bad, took away from the book.

Great book!!!! Neeeewwww yoooooorrrkkk!?????

I saw this on FB.. Some other author promoting it I believe? So I decided to listen to a sample. It sounded pretty good so I bought it. This is what happened to the cast of Saint Elmo's fire when they were mixed in a flask with Candace Bushnell and her elite New York fictional characters! Evelyn and her mother are great and crazy! The only thing I did not like was the ending with the friend Preston as we really did not get to find out if he forgave her! Love love love it!!! Everybody rise! Also the narrator has a wonderful voice ❤️👍

AWFUL main character. She is shallow and stupid.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would have written some kind of reason for the reader to like this main character.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

The story was interesting. It was entertaining to have a front seat to the shallow world of the rich.

What about Katherine Kellgren’s performance did you like?

She is fantastic. I love her work and enjoy listening to her very much.

Did Everybody Rise inspire you to do anything?

Yes, to be very cautious before listening to anything written by this author. Was the book severely edited? There was never any reason given as to why the main character should be liked.

Should Have Cut My Losses

The story seemed to spin and spin, not really landing.
The narration was maddening. The characters were a jumble, no continuity. Many times what was intended to be haughty, came across as old hag.
I had hoped it would improve as the story progressed, but alas, it did not.

So good, i listened twice!

I really enjoyed the story line, characters and narrator. I have listed to this book twice and will move likely listen again

Mediocre story; hard-to-believe characters

Is there anything you would change about this book?

Needs richer characters: the characters all seem forced, molded to work for the plot rather than realistic people of their own. Needs a better plot: this book poses as a coming-of-age story for early adulthood, but it doesn't succeed. It's just not believable. The main character seems reasonable and rational at the beginning of the story and completely crazy by the end without any basis.

What was most disappointing about Stephanie Clifford’s story?

It was slow and not believable. I don't believe Ms. Clifford did sufficient research about the New York high society scene or white collar criminal law. I kept shaking my head and thinking "that's not how that works."

What about Katherine Kellgren’s performance did you like?

Katherine is never disappointing; she just didn't have good material to perform.

Was Everybody Rise worth the listening time?

No.

Any additional comments?

Not worth the credit.

Wharton-ish

I really enjoyed this book, which has been compared to the great Edith Wharton. I found Evelyn's fall from grace was more difficult to read than Lily Bart's because unlike Lily, Evelyn is not constrained by the same social circumstances, she has choices where Lily had few. Evelyn really has no excuses for her behavior.

My job involves working with the 1%, sometimes with "People Like Us" some more like the Beegans. I have to say that the author is spot on with so many details. The traditions, the exclusions, the vacation homes, even the restaurants.

My only wish is that the book went to the fall of 2008 and showed us what happened to some of the characters after the market crash. Some of it was telegraphed at the end, but specifics would have been fun.

Slice of Life story, a little jumpy throughout

I liked the story, it gave a glimpse of what it was like to be a a beegan for a while but the story did jump back and forth a bit too much. and I also felt like the ending was a bit rushed. the most memorable moment for me was the Epic argument in the middle of the lake I don't want to give too much away for anyone that hasn't read the book or listen to the book yet but it was quite interesting to say the least.

Not exactly a breezy beach read

I am sooooo conflicted about this book, but I'll say up front that it's very well written, holding my interest as to how Evelyn would end up; although, it has its cringeworthy moments. Also, it's tough to discuss the book without at least some spoiler aspects, so let's get out of the way that she flies high like an Icarus, crashes badly bruised, and yes, eventually recovers. I felt it helped a lot during the worst of the events that our protagonist is, after all, someone to root for, crazed behavior and all.

Where to start … I suppose the class aspect is what got at me the most. I'm peripherally familiar with the Old Money set whom the author sets up as Evelyn's object of desire. I read that she mostly used “research” to create them, rather than (much) first-hand interaction, and from my (limited!) experience, they largely came off as exaggerated parodies, more new money in their behavior than old. As an example, the Hackings are said to stock Veuve Cliquot by the case at their summer house – my mom, who's had a bit more contact with that group than I have, snorted at the idea. The whole dinner party scene was like something out of Upstairs, Downstairs; the author was using it to indicate how humble Scot's origins were, but it really fell flat for me: my dad went to a highly regarded private school (though not boarding), then Harvard, and was a member of one of the most selective (country) clubs for most of his life, and I never heard him talk about fish knives, let alone see him use one! Moreover, I seriously doubt that Mrs. Hacking would be doing the sheets herself (barring unusual circumstances), nor would there be a plate of pastries and a thermos of coffee in the morning, with instructions to “Help yourself!” If these were actual, real world people, there'd be some sort of employees around – I'd bet good money on that.

I guess this is a good point to move on to the characters themselves. Nick is probably the easiest to discuss as, frankly, I wasn't buying him as Old Money at all, despite the mention of his family background. He seemed more like an Evelyn character who succeeded in breaking the Upper Class ceiling (from an upper middle background), because he had the large income to sustain a lavish lifestyle. I was struck that the author used The Hamptons as his 'hood for convenience; while there may still be some, residual Old Money crowd around (“The Long Secret”, sequel to the YA classic “Harriet the Spy” deals with that), the “scene” there would be awfully New Money. Charlotte, on the other hand, is completely believable, as she functions in that world when necessary, but knows all the money in the world wouldn't get her to actually want to be part of Camilla's “set” full time.

Camilla … the villain … and yet not. Bear in mind that when Evelyn first meets her, she makes the assumption that Camilla is all about fashion as she's beautiful, rich and not … ummm … intellectual, shall we say. She's called on it, and manages to befriend Camilla, but it's apparent that Ms. Rutherford is yearning to be acknowledged for something besides money and looks. Still, like Evelyn she's her mother's daughter. I'm willing to give her credit that her anger had a lot to do with being lied to, and “used”; what she wanted was for Evelyn to like her as an individual.

And now, Preston. Much is made of his sexuality, which is a problem in this group, not because they're homophobic as such, but because a gay couple (Pres and bf) would be like the old Sesame Street song “One of these things is not like the others ….” It'd be awkward. However, I didn't think that was his main problem, the root of his crash: he's 28 years old, and has (presumably) never held a paying job. In the real world, that's a bit late to start, even given his connections. I can easily see whiz kids Nick, Scot and Jaime triggering the drinking as he compares their active lives to his own.

This is turning out to be a very long review, so let's get to the plot. Each chapter is a jewel in itself, including Clifford's use of titles. We start at Lake James (Lake George, NY) with Evelyn witnessing the downfall of Nick's aspirant girlfriend, Chrissie. She takes pity on the poor gal in a “There, but for the grace of God go I” manner; it was obvious to me that when Evelyn's turn comes in a reprise scene, Our Deity will be summoned to take an urgent call – not a real spoiler. Much of the action takes place there, and later at Evelyn's hometown on the eastern shore of Maryland, where Clifford shows her hand at scene setting; New York City itself, oddly, not quite as much, although it's such well trodden literary ground. Vignettes are brief glimpses, but I'm not sure what one would call the opposite: a story where chapters approach min-novella status? As Evelyn becomes more and more fixated on Camilla's set, her own world of work and family - where trouble lies like shark fins on the horizon – are minimized (ignored) as best she can, requiring Clifford to set several scenes to foreshadow the looming crises.

So, would I recommend the book? Definitely, but with notice that you'll be in it for the long haul. Light and breezy this one's NOT! I haven't read The House of Mirth, to which this book is often compared; the classic which I find the closest reader experience would be Balzac's Cousin Bette, although here we get an optimistic ending.

I've seen reviews criticizing Kellgren's narration, which I found puzzling as she absolutely nails the voices, some of whom are unsympathetic (shall we say) characters, where listening to them isn't supposed to be a “nice” experience. She gets a solid five stars for her work from me!

Enjoyable

A very sad, but enjoyable account of a young woman's struggle to belong. Seemed incredible at times.