The View from Penthouse B
When meek and mousy middle sister ­Gwen-Laura is suddenly widowed and left with an empty, expensive New York City apartment, her baby sister, Betsy, suggests a win-win solution: move in with their older sister, Margot, freshly and scandalously divorced and burdened with a luxury penthouse she can no longer afford, thanks to Bernie Madoff. As different as chalk and cheese, Gwen and Margot nonetheless become compatible roommates, their differences mitigated by the addition of a third tenant, a cupcake-baking, Lehman Brothers–layoff victim: twentysomething Anthony. As Margot takes to cyberspace to rant about her reversal of fortune in a blog, Gwen reluctantly also turns to the web in an effort to get back into a dating game that has changed dramatically in the 30-plus years she’s been out of circulation. Loosely inspired by events in the author’s own life (I Can’t Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays) popular comedic novelist Lipman’s (The Family Man, 2009) latest evokes the lonely world of the mature, newly single woman with a sweet and comforting touch. --Carol Haggas