Rules for the Modern Elite (The New You Survival Kit - Daisy Waugh)

Member Name: TigerTiger

Product:	The New You Survival Kit - Daisy Waugh
Date:	02/02/02 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A very easy and enjoyable read, Some comical moments, Lots of interesting characters and sub plots

Disadvantages: If you hate chick lit, this isn't for you!, Verging on the pretentious at times

Chick lit rules! Or so they would have us believe the amount of Bridget Jones-esque books that come on to the market each week. It really is quite frightening, especially if you consider that most of them are not actually very good. I know, I read a hell of a lot of them in the hope of finding the odd gem amongst the mass. My most recent novel was ?The New you Survival Kit - An essential Guide to Etiquette, Rites and Customs Among the Modern Elite.? by Daisy Waugh which was actually a new release on special offer in Whsmith at £3.99 (it is still on offer as of 1st February 2002).

I fell in love with the cover, which may sound slightly mental. It features a bag from one of those expensive boutiques with Daisy Waugh, London, Paris, New York written across the front. It then has a couple of boxes and the essential ?pink? mobile phone sticking out the top of it. All very girlie and irresistible to me, it would certainly brighten up my bookcase!

I had never heard of Daisy Waugh before. She has written two previous books called, ?What is the matter with Mary Jane? and ?A small town in Africa?. She lives in London with her two children.

?The New You Survival Kit? introduces us to Jo Smiley, who has a fantastic and glamourous job in PR, membership to all the ?right? places, beautiful expensive clothes, a great social life and equally successful boyfriend Ed. Being such an expert on having it all Jo attempts to show us all how we can be achieve the same. She provides us with ?An essential guide to etiquette, Rites and Customs among the modern elite?. It all sounds very pretentious and to be honest it does come across that way, but of course that is the intention.

The book is split into 10 Chapters, which hope to provide you with everything that you need to create ?the new successful you?. They are as follows:

1. A back up plan for every occasion
2. An advanced communications system
3. A smart uniform
4. Some great
mates
5. A big, big heart
6. An amazingly packed agenda
7. A quiet confident delivery
8. The members? own directory to what?s funny and what?s not
9. A Yes! Can do approach
10. Belief!!

Through these chapters the aim is to transform you with the aid of Jo. However, it isn?t quite as simple as that. You see although she is telling us as the reader about the ?right? way to do things, we are also following, her so called ?perfect life?. Jo isn?t the nicest of people, the fact she proclaims to be able to change people into something ?more socially acceptable? kind of highlights that I think. At its essence this book is about a not so nice person turning into a nice one. We start to see Jo?s so called rules for the nonsense that they are, and so does she as realisation dawns that there is more to life than nice clothes, great friends and money.

So, what causes this change? A man of course!!! Hey this is chick lit, what do you really expect???? Along the way Jo meets Charlie, who doesn?t fit into her world at all. He is a typical old public school boy, who just isn?t cool, he dresses badly and says all the wrong un-cool things, but he is a good person. Things don?t go as planned and there are many complications in Jo and Charlie getting together, her awful boyfriend Ed being one of them. However, I don?t think I am spoiling too much by saying it has a rather predictable ending. Jo ends up changing herself, rather than changing everyone around her.

This book may seem a little silly and cheesy, it did to me anyway. However, as I read it, what struck me was that it had a very true and good message at its core. The society that we live in is very materialistic, we all know that. Where do you think phrases like ?it?s not what you know, but who you know come from???? They tend to be quite true. ?The new you survival kit? lifts the lid on the superficial world we live in, and in particular the world of PR and celebrity. One of
the other main characters in the book is a great example of this. Grey is a newly popular poet who is struggling with the whole celebrity thing. He drinks and takes drugs to try and escape the fact that his world is turning in to something he actually dislikes. It demonstrates how following the so called new rules for the modern elite doesn?t necessarily guarantee happiness.

The book contains incidences of scandals in the papers, betrayal, back stabbing, loss and grief, as well as an interesting and unexpected ?whodunit? sub plot.

Ok, I?m not going to pull any punches this book won?t win literary awards, it probably won?t even make a best seller list, however, it is one of those easy and enjoyable reads which I personally love. There is nothing wrong with a little ?fluffiness? in ones life, especially if it has a good moral ending! Oh, and it quotes all the lyrics to ?I will Survive?, so it can?t be all bad :O)

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