All is Vanity: A Novel

Written by Christina Schwarz

Narrated by Blair Brown

In All is Vanity, Margaret and Letty, best friends since childhood and now living on opposite coasts, reach their mid-thirties and begin to chafe at their sense that they are not where they ought to be in life. Margaret, driven and overconfident, decides the best way to rectify this is to quit her job and whip out a literary tour de force. Frustrated almost immediately and humiliated at every turn, Margaret turns to Letty for support. But as Letty, a stay-at-home mother of four, begins to feel pressured to make a good showing in the upper-middle-class Los Angeles society into which her husband’s new job has thrust her, Margaret sees a plot unfolding that’s better than anything she could make up. Desperate to finish her book and against her better nature, she pushes Letty to take greater and greater risks, and secretly steals her friend’s stories as fast as she can live them. Hungry for the world’s regard, Margaret rashly sacrifices one of the things most precious to her, until the novel’s suspenseful conclusion shows her the terrible consequences of her betrayal.

Widely celebrated for her debut novel, Drowning Ruth, Christina Schwarz once again proves herself to be a writer of remarkable depth and range. Like Drowning Ruth, All is Vanity probes into the mysteries of the human heart and uncovers the passions that drive ordinary people to break the rules in pursuit of their own desires.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 15, 2002
• ISBN: 9780739302002

Christina Schwarz

Christina Schwarz is the author of five novels, including The Edge of the Earth and the Oprah Book Club selection Drowning Ruth. Born and raised in rural Wisconsin, she lives in southern California.

Reviews for All is Vanity

[twryan72 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I agree with most of the comments that it was slow in the beginning. However...because I finished it and really enjoyed the second half's drama...I am happy I stuck with it.

[catien_3 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Margaret quits her teaching job to write a novel. Her best friend Letty is a stay-at-home mom with 4 kids. The first 100 pages is, basically, the story of Margaret figuring out how to write the novel. Parts were funny, and the writing was good, but the pace was just too slow for me. According to the book description, things do pick up with, I believe, Margaret stealing Letty's life, as told to her through e-mails, and uses it for her book. I just couldn't hang on that long. Maybe other writers would enjoy this book.

[seriousgrace · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book cracked me up. It's the story of a friendship between two women and how friendships can be taken advantage of. Margaret is a New York City woman (displaced from California) who gave up her teaching career to write a novel. She has subtle hubris (described as "cynical roilings" p138) that she tries to disguise to Letty and anyone else who listens to her (mainly her husband, Ted). Letty is Margaret's childhood friend who became (Poor Letty!) a stay-at-home mom with four kids and a great kitchen in Los Angeles, California. They keep in touch via email and almost immediately I noticed that between the two friends, despite Margaret being the one trying to write a book, Letty is the better writer. I love Letty's writing, but I think that's the point. It's only a matter of time before Margaret starts using Letty as the subject of her first book. When Letty's life starts to spiral out of control Margaret does nothing to help thinking it helps her own fictional plot.