Anna Quindlen's "Alternate Side" Show's Life in the Big Apple for the Spoiled and the Toiled

Anna Quindlen's sharp & critical eye for life in New York City for the elite and those who serve them is one of many oppositional social stratums & points of view captured in her well crafted novel "Alternative Side."  Nora & her husband Charles appear financially secure.  Their twins Rachel & Oliver are ensconced in their sr. year of college.  They've raised their family on a rare cul-de-sac on the UWS composed of individual brownstone homes filled with affluent white families creating a closed knit community upon itself.  Keeping the households churning & children cared for are the working class New Yorkers comprised of immigrants & those with far less economic advantages.  Quindlen's satirical highlighting of the haves and have nots in NYC is fiercely funny and acerbic.  Nora is the director for a jewelry museum exhibiting extravagant collections founded by wealthy NY socialite Bebe who likes to encase her own exorbitant jewels.  The ruckus raised by the discovery of imitation jewelry belonging to Bebe is priceless.  Nora notifies Bebe of the presumed robbery which doesn't phase her.  Bebe switched the authentic pieces with copies. "Who cares?  If nobody can tell the difference between real and fake, who cares if fake is what you're showing."  Phoniness is rampant amongst New Yorkers including the "homeless" mendicant outside the museum with whom Nora maintains cordial passing conversation.  And, diametrical vantages are omnipresent.  Ricky, the handyman has ingratiated himself by becoming indispensable to the sanctum of Nora & her neighbors.  He has a completely different personage when Nora seeks him out in his own neighborhood.  Ricky's wife is a real piece of work.  She has no problem laying it on the line what she thinks of Nora's self-righteousness & notorious neighborhood.  Much ado is made over the highly coveted parking lot adjacent to the cluster of brownstones.  When Ricky's van supposedly blocks access by one of the entitled parkers, a horrific incident ensues. Ricky is savagely struck by an aggrieved tenant with his golf club intentionally or not.  The gloves come off and sides are drawn.  The shifting scenarios are astute observations on white privilege, presumptions and pretensions.  "Alternate Side" offers an insider's view of life for Manhattanites.  However, marriage and relationships are at the apex of this clever & engrossing read.  Nora's marriage is dissected from within & by a cackle of caddy women who lunch.  "Marriages were like balloons; a few went suddenly pop, but more often than not the air slowly leaked out until it was a sad, wrinkled little thing with no lift to it anymore."  There's plenty of spark to make "Alternate Side" a page turner.