As many of you know, Lisa Birnbach's True Prep: It's a Whole New Old World is coming out this week.
Some reviews include:
And Vanity Fair ran this excerpt.
How excited are you?
- Very excited, and will read it immediately cover to cover.
- Lukewarm. Will get it eventually, but not in a hurry.
- Will re-read The Preppy Handbook instead.
- Looking forward to this whole thing blowing over.
** Update **
Here are the final poll results:
17 comments:
"a Whole New Old World"? ... not for me, thank you. The traditional New England prep doesn't need to join the trendy parade.
Interested more than excited. I'd be much more excited if everyone re-read the 1980 edition and followed it!
Pre-ordered the book on Amazon. I am anxiously awaiting a review from you on this blog Muffy. Are you planning on it?
I await. However, more to see what can possibly be said that hasn't already. I feel that "preppy" has become so trendy (and completely removed from its true beginnings) that the book will be more pandering drivel than anything else.
Then again, maybe that's the point.
I know who I am; I don't need Lisa Birnbach to tell me. If I read it at some point, it will be to determine what she got right or wrong.
Yesterday, my wife was reading the review in Vanity Fair and commented that it was hard to understand how anyone would waste their time on something like this.
I nodded sagely, without comment, and without mentioning that I ordered one from Amazon a couple of weeks ago, and was eagerly awaiting the 9/6 date.
There are times when full disclosure and transparency seem to be overrated.
To be honest, I haven't yet read the original and so I feel as though I should do so before reading the new one.
And on a side note, "The New Preppy" gallery on Vanity Fair is a horrendous misuse of the term, in my opinion. Here it is (if you dare): http://www.vanityfair.com/style/features/2010/09/new-preppy-slide-show-201009#slide=1
Here is the link from Ryan's comment: Vanity Fair's The New Preppy.
Susan - You hit the key word -trendy.
chessie8200 - I couldn't agree more. The first one was so accurate and I liked the third person/more anthropological voice.
Allison - Keeping quiet may prove to be too difficult for me!
JDB - That is part of the reason I actually dislike the term despite using it all of the time!
Andrea - I look forward to any of your thoughts on what she got "right or wrong"!
Wharf Rat - I had the same reaction as your wife, and the same action as you!
Ryan - Thank you for sharing that link. The most satisfying part was seeing so many of the commenters having the same reaction as I! And I think you would really enjoy the original book.
Egad. Vanity Fair is kidding, right?
I did pre-order the book, but from all the excerpts I have read I have a sinking feeling that it is not going to be a worthy sequel to TOPH. I understand she wanted to be more 'inclusive', but I fear she may have been too inclusive and too trendy.
Re-reading my comment, I wanted to clarify. I meant the clothing was too inclusive.
Muffy,
Will I read it? Most likely. Will it be as good as the first? That depends on one's opinion of the first. I read TOPH cover to cover a few months ago for the first time and found it... well, one takes the bad with the good I suppose.
I find that I respond most or feel akin to the "yankee-frugality" type of preppy. Your blog seems to me to be in that spirit.
However, the snobish, country club, prep-school type of preppy, is a bit off putting to me. Which brings me to my point.
Would you consider doing a post on the different types of preppies or preppy cultural values? I know you are very even-handed and I'm sure your opinion on the matter would be appreciated by everyone who reads The Daily Prep. Even more so than Lisa and Chip's, I would wager.
Many thanks
I am interested to see what she has to say. My feelings are that the "preppy" style is classic and never changing so why re-write a classic. "IMHO" J. Crew used to be classic(PREPPY) and now is trendy.
Muffy,
haven't purchased "True Prep" as of yet, most likely will. I own her other book the Preppie Handbook which I enjoyed cover to cover, but what I saw of Birnbach presentation on the Today Show didn't do anything for me sorta disappointed!
I have today finished reading it.
I was exactly the right age for the original Sloane handbook and Preppy Handbook, which probably makes me nostalgic and biased, but it simply isn't as good. Not as well written and not as well observed.
Anyway, true prep values (and Sloane values) have not changed even in a culture over over-sharing, in-your-face materialism, baseless entitlement and tawdry reality TV and global recession. In fact, my Sloaney friends are secretly thrilled that their thrifty values are becoming fashionable.
Ironically, the old original is the best - a true prep precept!
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