Given the reviews so far, it seems you either get Jonathan Dee’s fifth novel, The Privileges, or you don’t.

In today’s New York Times, Janet Maslin says that, although the story is “excessively cryptic …[it] is so invitingly told that it’s much easier to be drawn in than turned off.”

The book rose to #108 on Amazon two weeks ago, based on a very strong review in the NYT BR. Holds are heavy in several large libraries, on very modest ordering.

The book follows the marriage of a New York City “golden couple” who rise to great wealth on insider trading. It’s not the plot that hooks the reviewers, but the way it is told; the Cleveland Plain Dealer says the first chapter, about the couple’s wedding, “could stand on it own as an exquisite short story.”

But the review that most makes you want to read the book is in the L.A. Times, which is worth reading in its entirety.

The Privileges Jonathan Dee Retail Price: $25.00 Hardcover: 272 pages Publisher: Random House – (2010-01-05) ISBN / EAN: 1400068673 / 9781400068678

e-book available on OverDrive.

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