Little Pink Slips by Sally Koslow

Release date: 2007 / 370 pages

Synopsis (from jacket cover): “Maggie Goldfarb, born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota, was born to be a magazine editor.  In pursuit of her dream, she moved to Manhattan and, with luck, persistence, and hard work, morphed into Magnolia Gold, the highly paid editor in chief of Lady.”

First line: “The Chanel sample sale, holy of holies for the aspiring fashionista.”

Review:
After I finished Koslow’s latest novel, The Lamented Molly Marx, I immediately requested her first novel from the library and, while I enjoyed it enough, I think her second novel is much stronger.

Little Pink Slips felt like a “first novel” in a few regards.  First, it was too long…  I would have tightened up quite a bit of the first half.  We knew from the title that she was going to get fired eventually and the build-up dragged a bit.

Second, it seemed to follow the author’s life in many respects.  Now, is this a flaw?  Aren’t we supposed to “write what we know” after all?  Yes, but Molly was so original and quirky that Pink Slips seemed a bit too much like a really nice person with a pretty interesting life coming to terms with a difficult situation. 

However, if the first sentence of this novel grabs you, then you will really enjoy this journey.  But if you do not really care about New York City or high fashion or the ins and outs of the publishing world, then I think you may agree with me that the story gets a bit tedious.  While I love watching The Fashion Show and Project Runway on Bravo, I did not care for (or about) The Devil Wears Prada, so I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy a novel described by one reviewer as having “Pick[ed] up where The Devil Wears Prada left off…” but Magnolia is so likeable — and even most of the “villians” are multi-dimensional and intriguing — so, while it did seem too long, it is an enjoyable read.

Anyone else give this one a try yet?

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