cover image THE J.A.P. CHRONICLES

THE J.A.P. CHRONICLES

Isabel Rose, . . Doubleday, $22.95 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-385-51286-2

Annoying JAPS get their just desserts—and much more—in this sour tale of seven former bunk mates from prestigious Willow Lake Camp. The ex-campers gather for a reunion 10 years later, to be chronicled by videographer Ali Cohen, renegade in a nose ring and purple hair, newly pregnant and former victim of severe hazing by the other six girls. Anxious to bury her ghosts, Ali proposes a new documentary: a project showing the "crucial moments" in each of their lives. As she hoped, her former tormentors are far from happy: Dafna Schapiro has lost her daddy's $20K per month allowance; Beth Rosenblatt is preparing for the wedding of a century to a nice rich Jewish man about whom she couldn't care less; Arden Finkelstein is in and out of rehab; Jessica Bloom is a failing actress trapped in summer stock; Laura Berman is a high-powered talent agent with a lump in her breast; and Wendy Levin, perfect housewife and mother, is secretly having an affair with a woman. Snide references to Daddy's money, "wise marriages," greed, Valium, spas and blowouts, nose jobs and shiksas abound, and Rose has a penchant for punishing her characters in Old Testament ways: the promiscuous one gets raped; the cruel one is leading an angry, fearful life with her female lover; the powerful one gets cancer. Less funny-mean than plain old not-funny, Rose's debut falls flat. Agent, Sally Wofford-Girand. (May 17)