December 1, 2024
In turn-of-the-century Manhattan, a businessman enters into a lavender marriage with an ambitious woman and falls in love with his eccentric business rival. On Fifth Avenue, a gambling party brings together three characters. Vivian Lesperance knows she's in the last throes of romance with her lover, Sofia, a wealthy singer; she's left behind her spiteful parents in Utica, New York, and worked her way into the fringes of Manhattan high society through her clever tenacity, but she's running out of time to hitch herself to a new wagon. Forty-three-year-old Oscar Schmidt is a transplant from Ohio who manages the New York office of a soap company. Both his career and his personal reputation are on the verge of disaster--the former due to an upstart candle manufacturer competing for resources; the latter due to the gossip columnists' assessment of him as a "horticultural gent" (to wit: a pansy). Finally, there is the rival in question, old-money Squire Clancey, a gentle "crackpot" (modern readers will clock him as likely on the autism spectrum), whose hyperfixation on candles and excessive wealth lead to his inadvertent competition with Oscar. Vivian sees at once that merging the two businesses could create a lucrative partnership; she also realizes that marrying Oscar could protect them both from the weight of their secrets. What follows is Squire, Vivian, and Oscar's attempt to create a business--and a life--outside of traditional expectations. Wolfgang-Smith approaches historical fiction as a costume ball, affecting a fizzy, omniscient narration: At the book's most fun, it's Edith Wharton or Henry James, with more camp and a winking tone. But strict verisimilitude to this period in fiction also means a reliance on exposition, and combined with lots of business talk, this can slow things down. All's queer in love and industry: a memorable tale uniquely told.
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Starred review from November 4, 2024
Wolfgang-Smith (Glassworks) explores tensions in the private lives of three queer misfits turned business titans in her stunning latest. In 1899, 18-year-old Vivian Lesperance leaves her unloving parents in Utica, N.Y., for New York City. There, she lives by her wits and has her first sexual encounters with women, including society reporter Electra Blake, with whom she forges a “real... but... useful” friendship. The sexual dalliance is short-lived, but it yields a meeting with wealthy Italian chanteuse Sofia Bianchi, with whom Vivian embarks on an affair. That relationship is ending by the time Vivian meets Oscar Schmidt, a timid executive at a soap company. Schmidt’s business is collapsing thanks to Squire Clancey, a blue-blooded oddball obsessed with candle making, who’s been buying up the lion’s share of tallow and essential oils from Schmidt’s suppliers. Vivian, correctly sensing Oscar is secretly gay, offers to marry him to conceal their sexualities. He agrees, and after they marry, Vivian introduces Oscar to Squire and engineers a merger of their companies. Oscar and Squire fall in love and the trio style themselves as a married couple with an eccentric live-in friend. Thanks to Vivian’s vision, Clancey & Schmidt grows into a thriving commercial empire, but the men’s tender bond underscores her loneliness, as she racks up loveless encounters with other women. Wolfgang-Smith’s sharp, sardonic narration brilliantly brings to life both the Gilded Age and her unforgettable protagonists. It’s a virtuosic performance. Agent: Danielle Bukowski, Sterling Lord Literistic.
January 1, 2025
As she accomplished so well with her debut novel, Glassworks (2023), Wolfgang-Smith creates nuanced, full lives for the characters in her second. Vivian Lesperance escapes her oppressive childhood in Utica to reinvent herself in New York City, using her charm and skill to break into society. Her relationship with singer Sofia Bianchi catapults Vivian into a world of luxury for a time. Personal-care salesman Oscar Schmidt similarly f lees Cincinnati for New York, where his attraction to men can be managed without so many prying eyes. Squire Clancey, from an established New York society family, pursues his interests with an enthusiasm his parents do not understand. As the three characters encounter one another, Vivian's ambition leads them toward a life none of them could have expected. Wolfgang-Smith's remarkable skill with story and language brings readers into queer life in the early days of the twentieth century. Even side characters have deep histories. While the narrator's direct asides to the reader vary from intimate to distracting, Wolfgang-Smith's memorable protagonists and rich description are captivating.
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