The Wrong Kind of Money: 0

More than a half-century of evolving disharmony between New York City Jews and gentiles goes under the burning glass in this roman a clef from bestselling author Birmingham (Carriage Trade). Hannah Liebling, aging CEO of liquor giant Ingrahams, quotes her late husband's adage that ""once a man has $10 million he's no longer thought of as being Jewish. He's merely thought of as being rich."" But her black-sheep son Cyril is quick to disagree: ""If it's the wrong kind of money, and you're the wrong kind of Jew, it makes all the difference in the world."" Against a backdrop of all-important social distinctions, Birmingham delivers standard intergenerational soap-opera: Hannah refuses to turn over the corporate reins to good son Noah because he won't let her put her baby sister, Bathy, back on the company payroll--but Noah hates Aunt Bathy because in his college days he caught her in flagrante delicto with his father. In the meantime, courted socially by the snobby trophy spouse of a WASP liquor-bottler, Noah's Catholic wife, Carol, is scheming to gain social standing by being appointed a trustee at the Metropolitan Museum. Stir in the malevolent Yalie author of a campus sex expose, an oversexed teenage prodigy, assorted adulteries, messy sibling secrets, homosexuality, incest, addiction and blackmail; add a sprig of statutory rape; garnish with a dash of homicide, and you have an overspiced, often implausible chronicle of upper-class intrigues that borrows from true-life stories and is sure to generate the right kind of money from Birmingham's fans. (Aug.)