Jackson, Lucy [A pseudonym]

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Jackson, Lucy [A pseudonym]

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. Agent—Maria Massie, Lippincott Massie McQuilken, 80 5th Ave., No. 10011, New York, NY 10011.

CAREER:

Writer, novelist, and short-story writer.

WRITINGS:

Posh, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to anthologies, including Best American Short Stories. Contributor to periodicals, including the New Yorker.

SIDELIGHTS:

Lucy Jackson is the pseudonym of an already noted author of short stories and novels who decided to publish Posh, a novel about an elite Manhattan private school, under a pen name. Jackson has been particularly careful to keep her identity a secret. Neither her editor nor her publicist know her real name, and she has communicated only with executive editor Elizabeth Beier at her publisher, St. Martin's Press. "Pseudonyms in fiction are nothing new, of course. But the secret isn't usually this closely held," commented Lynn Andriani in Publishers Weekly. Andriani noted that Jackson's agent, Maria Massie, speculated that the reason for the secrecy might be to maintain a separation between Jackson's literary works and her more commercial fiction represented by Posh.

In the novel, a varied cast of characters tells the story of the rich, upper-class Griffin School, a ritzy private preparatory school in New York. Katherine "Lazy" Hoffman is the overworked school principal, who must deal with the demands of overly protective and demanding parents, who see their child's tenure at Griffin as the final step toward enrollment in a prestigious Ivy League school. Adding to already existing school scandals, Hoffman courts another one through her affair with an English teacher, even though her husband is in all ways a wonderful spouse. Julianne attends Griffin on scholarship, since her mother, a former novelist, cannot afford to send her there on a cab driver's salary. Her boyfriend, Michael, is both rich and brilliant, but he is haunted by the emotional turmoil of severe bipolar disorder. Michael's mother seems to have little time or concern for him. In contrast, Julianne's best friend, Morgan, has just lost her loving mother to the ravages of cancer. Despite the high potential for tragedy, Julianne and Michael continue their relationship, until the inevitable occurs. "There are not any major surprises here, but the book is well written, and the characters are appealing," commented Sarah Flowers, writing in School Library Journal.

Gillian Engberg, writing in Booklist, praised the novel for its "poignant messages about ambition, love, class, and marriage." Though the portrayal of some of the story's rich eccentrics is sometimes too broadly drawn, the novel most often "focuses on the author's greatest strengths, which lie not in her ability to poke fun at straw men, but rather in her skill at making the reader care about her more fully realized characters, for all of their imperfections," remarked Carolyn Juris in the San Francisco Chronicle. A Publishers Weekly reviewer concluded that Jackson's handling of the story's many relationships, "both toxic and positive, filial and friendly—is flawlessly executed as she flits from social strata to social strata."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of Posh, p. 32.

Kirkus Reviews, October 15, 2006, review of Posh, p. 1036.

Library Journal, November 15, 2006, Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, review of Posh, p. 57.

Publishers Weekly, October 9, 2006, review of Posh, p. 34; November 6, 2006, Lynn Andriani, "Mysterious St. Martin's Author Remains Unknown—Even to Her Editor," profile of Lucy Jackson.

San Francisco Chronicle, January 8, 2007, Carolyn Juris, "Sharply Witty Tone Captures Elite Manhattan School's Rich and Richer," review of Posh, p. E3.

School Library Journal, January, 2007, Sarah Flowers, review of Posh, p. 164.