Product Description
Noah rose from humble beginnings and, through pure grit and resourcefulness, got himself through Princeton. Now staggering under the weight of massive student loans and dazzled by life in the big city, Noah enters the rarefied field of SAT tutoring in Manhattan, working one-on-one with the spoiled, gorgeous children of the American aristocracy. He takes on the considerable academic challenges that are Dylan Thayer, a dissipated high school athlete-socialite, and his waifish sister, Tuscany. Dylan won't lift a finger to do anything but pick up a lacrosse stick, and Tuscany is avidly pursuing her own downfall via drugs and relationships with men more than twice her age. But their mother, a self-medicating pediatrician, has ambitious plans for them in spite of their shortcomings -- and she has plans for their SAT tutor as well. With echoes of The Devil Wears Prada, The Nanny Diaries, and Bright Lights, Big City, Glamorous Disasters is an incisive portrayal of a small and privileged world, a cautionary tale written by a Harvard grad who was once an SAT tutor himself -- an outsider who became a magnificently observant insider.
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Glamorous Disasters: A Novel
- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 2007-02-13
- Label: Simon & Schuster
- Studio: Simon & Schuster
- ISBN: 0743281683
- Average Customer Review:
 based on 23 reviews
- Sales Rank in Books: #669609
Avg. Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Painfully boring 2009-01-04
Comment: Shallow, stereotyped characters and a choppy, awkward writing style make this book a chore to read. There's nothing interesting here. Schrefer seems almost as bored telling the story as I was reading it. Don't waste your time.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Impossible to put down! 2008-11-11
Comment: I loved this book! It is hilarious and impossible to put down! It is about a likable recent Princeton grad who tutors rich kids in Manhattan in order to earn enough money to repay his student loans. As he plunges into the unfamiliar world of the privileged, the main character encounters people and situations that will make you laugh out loud! The story flows nicely and is immensely entertaining.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: fun, insightful glimpse into the world of SAT tutoring on Fifth Avenue 2008-04-02
Comment: Eliot Schrefer's Glamarous Disasters had me laughing throughout. I had no idea the world of SAT tutoring among the rich and privileged kids in Manhattan could be so scandalous!
The story follows Noah, a recent Princeton graduate who makes a living as a SAT tutor for only the most privileged (and bratty!) kids Manhattan has to offer. Dealing with the Thayer family pushes Noah into making tough decisions on just how far he's willing to go to help them out - and get ahead himself. As he travels down from Harlem to tutor on Fifth Avenue, we immediately see the vast differences between his two worlds. Noah struggles to pay back his college loans, send money back home to his family, and simply stay afloat in the big city. When a certain Dr. Thayer offers him a deal anyone would be hard-pressed to refuse, will Noah do the right thing - whatever that is?
In the meantime, we get to see how Dr. Thayer all but ignores her image-obsessed daughter in every way - that is, unless it comes to competing with her for male attention. And, it's quite amazing that her son Dylan, the club-hopping, hipster cool kid, has slipped through the system and can barely construct a sentence without the aid of numerous tutors. Both children regularly dip into their mother's drug supply, and she often seems pretty spaced out herself.
All in all, it's a funny glimpse into a world most people will never see. Parts of the book reminded me of The Devil Wears Prada, mostly because it let's the everyday person steal a view into a world typically out of reach. If you're looking for a fun read, give Glamorous Disasters a try.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating: 
Summary: $395 an hour 2007-06-12
Comment: I got hooked into purchasing this book because I wanted to read how the main character got $395 for tutoring. Alas, $395 is how much the tutoring agency charges and is not the tutor's take home pay. This story reinforces my reasons for never wanting to be a bartender or perform customer service of any kind despite the financial rewards.
I managed to get through this book more easily than I did Academy X which this title is linked to by Amazon. I think this book will encourage if not convince people to just be yourself and not want to be either the tutor or the people who can afford his services.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Customer Rating:
Summary: A tale that needs to be told 2006-08-14
Comment: Before I get into the book itself, I have to get this pet peeve off my mind. Do publishers not use proofreaders anymore? I started tabbing the pages with glaring errors until the book had a ribbon of tabs. If on one page, Noah says his appointment with Dylan isn't until 2:00 pm but on the very next page he announces to the doorman that he's there for his 4 o' clock appointment, something is dreadfully amiss. In another place, Dylan had one week in which to take his test, Two pages later, he had two weeks. Seasons seemed to change literally overnight. Time condensed and then expanded. Truly inexcusable.
But the book itself was quite charming and to those who really know the truth about nouveau Manhattan wealth, absolutely true. Schrefer may exaggerate with poetic license but there is more truth in his tales than the more negative reviewers here realize. SAT tutoring is Big Business among the wealthy overindulged and pampered teens who populate the New York private and semi-private schools and cheating, not by the tutors though, is more rampant than people suspect. The author needs more seasoning to move his story along more briskly but this is a good first novel and I look forward to his next one -- hopefully with a proofreader in tow.
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Glamorous Disasters: A Novel
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