Theresa Rebeck. (2008). Three Girls and Their Brother: A Novel. Crown.

Theresa Rebeck. 2008. Three Girls and Their Brother: A Novel. Crown.

Theresa Rebeck, Three Girls and Their Brother: A Novel. Crown, 2008.

Theresa Rebeck. Three Girls and Their Brother: A Novel. Crown, 2008.

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1. • value: family
2. • value: relationships
3. • value: 21st century
4. • value: Friendship
5. • value: literary fiction
6. • value: romance
7. • value: Humor
8. • value: sisters
9. • value: parenting
10. • value: fashion
11. • value: Fiction
12. • value: mental health
13. • value: novels
14. • value: Coming of age
15. • value: satire
16. • value: Comedy
17. • value: women
18. • value: mystery
19. • value: Drama
20. • value: Women's Fiction
21. • value: Modern
22. • value: dating
23. • value: Contemporary Romance
24. • value: Hollywood
25. • value: twins
26. • value: Music
27. • value: Chick Lit
28. • value: fiction books
29. • value: funny books
30. • value: realistic fiction
31. • value: humor books
32. • value: humorous books
33. • value: satire fiction
34. • value: gifts for women
35. • value: book club books
36. • value: gifts for her
37. • value: funny gifts
38. • value: summer books for women
39. • value: mother theresa books
40. • value: realistic fiction books
41. • value: women gifts
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creators

1. • role: Author
   • fileAs: Rebeck, Theresa
   • bioText: THERESA REBECK’s plays include Bad Dates, Omnium Gatherum (a Pulitzer finalist), The Scene, and Mauritius, which won Boston’s prestigious IRNE and Elliot Norton Award and premiered on Broadway in 2007. Rebeck has also won the Peabody, the Writer’s Guild of America Award for Episodic Drama, the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award, the National Theatre Conference Award, and the William Inge New Voices Playwriting Award. She holds a Ph.D. from Brandeis University and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
   • name: Theresa Rebeck

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2008-04-08T00:00:00-04:00

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title

Three Girls and Their Brother

fullDescription

Now that it’s all over, everybody is saying it was the picture–that stupid picture was behind every disaster. . . .
They may be the granddaughters of a famous literary critic, but what really starts it all is Daria, Polly, and Amelia Heller’s stunning red hair. Out of the blue one day, The New Yorker calls and says that they want to feature the girls in a glamorous spread shot by a world-famous photographer, and before long these three beautiful nobodies from Brooklyn have been proclaimed the new “It” girls.
But with no parental guidance–Mom’s a former beauty queen living vicariously through her daughters, and Dad is nowhere to be found–the three girls find themselves easy prey for the sharks and piranhas of show business. Posing in every hot fashion magazine, tangling with snarling fashonistas and soulless agents, skipping school and hitting A-list parties, the sisters are caught up in a whirlwind rise to fame that quickly spirals out of control.
When Amelia, the youngest of the three–who never really wanted to be a model in the first place–appears in an Off-Broadway play, the balance of power shifts, all the pent-up resentment and pressure comes to a head, and the girls’ quiet, neglected brother reaches a critical point of virtual breakdown. And against the odds, even as the struggle for fame threatens to tear the family apart, the Hellers begin to see that despite the jealousy, greed, and uncertainty that have come to define their relationships, in the celebrity world of viciousness and betrayal, all they really have is one another.
Narrated in four parts, from the perspective of each sibling, Three Girls and Their Brother is a sharp, perceptive, and brilliantly written debut novel from an acclaimed playwright.

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: People (4 out of 4 stars)
   • content: "A deliciously wicked satire."
2. • premium: False
   • source: Publishers Weekly
   • content: "Hilarious first novel...Rebeck shines when Amelia gets cast in a ridiculous off-Broadway play...her insider's look at the theatre world is spot on and uproarious."
3. • premium: False
   • source: Kirkus (starred review)
   • content: "A wickedly enjoyable exposé of modern celebrity."
4. • premium: False
   • source: Entertainment Weekly (A-)
   • content: "Playwright Theresa Rebeck is known for black comedy and hyper-intelligent heroines, and both figure in her first novel, Three Girls and Their Brother -- a fizzy satire of celeb-obsessed NYC about flame-haired teenage sisters who get photographed for The New Yorker and soon become megastars."
5. • premium: False
   • source: Vogue
   • content: "Drawing on her rich understanding of the Darwinist...Rebeck delivers a crackling expose so dead-on it's arguably closer to social realism than satire."
6. • premium: False
   • source: More Magazine
   • content: "This snappy, scathing novel from the acclaimed playwright follows the trio of gorgeous Heller sisters who get famous and become darlings of the fashionista set - until their youthful world hilariously implodes."
7. • premium: False
   • source: Boston Globe
   • content: "In her first novel, playwright Theresa Rebeck satirizes the publicity-driven world of instant celebrity. Three Girls and Their Brother is pointed and funny, an entertaining, cautionary story about the powerful and the preyed upon."
8. • premium: False
   • source: The New York Observer
   • content: "I was charmed – and I won't be the last."
9. • premium: False
   • source: Booklist
   • content: "With wry humor and sharply observant prose, Rebeck lands one roundhouse punch after another in this supremely gratifying takedown of show-biz politics."
10. • premium: False
    • source: Library Journal
    • content: "In her funny and well-observed first novel, award-winning Broadway playwright Rebeck (Omnium Gatherum; Mauritius) weighs in on the peculiarity and absurdity of fame in modern America."
11. • premium: False
    • source: Associated Press
    • content: "Given her background as a playwright, it is not surprising that she is able to create convincing, distinctive voices for teenagers...Rebeck undercuts the fun with darker points about celebrity culture – particularly the damage caused by the media's sexualization of young girls."
12. • premium: False
    • source: New York Times
    • content: "An experienced playwright who has also toiled in the television industry, Ms. Rebeck has intimate knowledge of the pathologies bred in smart, seemingly well-adjusted men and women by the surreal polarities of success and failure."
13. • premium: False
    • source: Carol Goodman, author of The Lake of Dead Languages
    • content: "Three Girls and Their Brother is a brilliant fiction debut. Rebeck weaves such an atmosphere of excitement and turmoil. I felt genuinely close to these characters–all three sisters and their brother. The insider's look at the life of young models and the way instant success can upend everything resonates in hilarious and heartbreaking ways. I found it impossible to put this book down."
14. • premium: False
    • source: Geoffrey Wolff, acclaimed author and Professor Emeritus of English at the University of California--Irvine
    • content: "What a group portrait! Theresa Rebeck shows the picture vividly, proofs and final print alike. And boy does she broadcast the music–chorus and arias–of Three Girls and Their Brother. The brother, Philip, begins the story and I was rooting for him from his first words, the sound of a kid with whom Holden Caulfield would like to pal around. So when Amelia, the youngest of the three gorgeous sisters, took over the narrative, I was bummed. Needn't have been: She does her own daring riff and it's right on the money. And on the money are her two older sisters, Polly and Daria having had their perspectives and styles enriched by all that comes before. I loved reading this novel! I've decided, having read it, that I'd rather not be a celebrity after all. Spread the word."
15. • premium: False
    • source: Marsha Norman, author of the Pulitzer Prize
    • content: "I love this novel. It is smart and funny and impossible to put down. From the fantasy world of models to the agents, the managers, the press and the predators who sell these girls through the media, Rebeck creates a moving story of three gorgeous sisters and what happens when fame, unexpectedly, comes to call. This dazzling novel lets us eavesdrop on these beauties who find a way to stay alive in the limelight. You will never look at a fashion photo in the same way again."
16. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      December 24, 2007
      Rebeck has won an Edgar and a Peabody for her TV work and numerous awards for her plays. Her hilarious first novel begins when the New Yorker
      profiles the three beautiful granddaughters and grandson of a famed late literary critic, Leo Heller. As a perennially aspiring model, Daria, 18, is ecstatic. Her younger sister, Polly, 17, is thrilled, too, but 14-year-old Amelia could care less. Philip, 15, who is the smartest of the group, is the first of the four to assume the first-person narrative; he’s wary of all the attention, but the siblings’ former beauty queen mom can’t wait to take advantage of the publicity and push her daughters into show biz, even if it means sacrificing their schooling. Rebeck shines when Amelia gets cast in a ridiculous off-Broadway play: her insider’s look at the theater world is spot on and uproarious, particularly her contrast of poor starving actors with rich starving models and of theater types with Hollywood types. The siblings’ voices are not consistently strong, and an over-the-top revenge plot drains some power from the plot, but the crackling satire and scene-stealing secondaries carry the book.

17. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from February 15, 2008
      The three beautiful, red-headed Heller sisters, granddaughters of a respected literary critic, are inexplicably hailed by "The New Yorker" in a lavish photo spread as the new "it" girls. And so the rise to fame begins for Daria, Polly, and Amelia as fashion magazines, famous, sleazy actors, and paparazzi relentlessly take notice. Philip, their neglected and marginalized brother, is the lone voice of dissent, as the sisters soon become household names, quit school, and are featured on an eight-foot tall billboard in the middle of Manhattan's Union Square. When Amelia, at 14 the youngest of the sisters, lands a role in an off-Broadway play and breaks away from the sister act, the uneasy sibling rivalry surfaces and forces the three sisters and their brother to decide where their newfound fame will take them. In her funny and well-observed first novel, award-winning Broadway playwright Rebeck ("Omnium Gatherum; Mauritius") weighs in on the peculiarity and absurdity of fame in modern America. In spite of the misleading and very dated cover on the advanced reading copy, this is much more than fluffy chick lit. Strongly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 11/15/07.]Andrea Y. Griffith, Loma Linda Univ. Libs., CA

      Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

18. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      July 1, 2008
      Adult/High School-This debut novel by a Peabody award-winning playwright has its finger on the pulse of what's current and happening. It is also a very old story of exploitation, greed, and over-the-top drama done in four first-person voices: the eponymous Heller siblingsthree beautiful red-haired teenage girlsand, oh yes, their brother. The tale begins with a classy picture in "Vanity Fair" by a noted photographer and ends, semi-tragically, in the way that all celebrity stories seem to endin tabloid headlines and with paparazzi shots and court proceedings. Reading this book is like eating too much candy; it tastes good and you want to wolf it all down, but by the time you're done, it will make you feel sick. The three sisters, although different, become so manipulated by others that if the sections weren't labeled, it would be difficult to tell the point of view had changed from voice alone. Their rabid vanity becomes grating, while the nonexistence of any parental responsibility bodes ill for their futures and that of the only sympathetic character, their brother. Still, teens who like Cecily von Ziegesar's "Gossip Girl" or Zoey Dean's "A-List" series (both Little, Brown) will devour this with no indigestion."Charli Osborne, Oxford Public Library, MI"

      Copyright 2008 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

19. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      Starred review from February 1, 2008
      Rebeck remains best known for herplaysthe most successful to date isOmnium Gatherum (a Pulitzer Prize finalist). Inher debut novel, she hits the ground running with a fast-paced, wickedly funny satire on celebrity culture. Theredheaded Heller sisters are featured on the cover of the New Yorkerostensibly because they are the grandaughters of a famous literary critic butreally because they are freaking gorgeous.Thecover shotlaunches them directly into the celebrity stratosphere, and they are soon being hounded by the paparazzi, invited totrendy nightclubs, and booked for photo shoots in all the fashion magazines. When the youngest, 14-year-old Amelia, reacts toa fortysomething movie stars groping hands by biting him, the media have a field day and the sisterspublicist goes into overdrive trying to salvage their careers.The novel is told from all four siblings perpectives, fromneglected brotherPhilips Holden Caulfieldlike take on the phoniness of the proceedingsto self-absorbed Pollyssurprising metamorphosis fromdiva to ferociously protective big sister. With wry humor andsharply observant prose, Rebecklands one roundhouse punch after another in thissupremely gratifyingtakedown of show-biz politics.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

20. • premium: True
    • source:
    • content:

      March 17, 2008
      Rebeck's engaging tale of the Heller sisters, three young women whose quick rise to superstardom after a New Yorker photo shoot, is a witty, insider look at the world of celebrity. However, narrators Cassandra Campbell and David Drummond butcher the novel with absolutely brutal performances that are at once over-the-top and completely uninspired. Campbell, reading predominantly female roles, is drier than happy hour at the Betty Ford Center. Her characters are flat, one-dimensional, and downright boring; her awful attempt at a British dialect is laughable at best. Drummond's reading is equally as tired and over pronounced; his characters are unbelievable and his voice grates. A disappointment and disservice to Rebeck's dazzling novel. A Shaye Areheart hardcover (Reviews, Dec. 24).

popularity

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Now that it’s all over, everybody is saying it was the picture–that stupid picture was behind every disaster. . . .
They may be the granddaughters of a famous literary critic, but what really starts it all is Daria, Polly, and Amelia Heller’s stunning red hair. Out of the blue one day, The New Yorker calls and says that they want to feature the girls in a glamorous spread shot by a world-famous photographer, and before long these three beautiful nobodies from Brooklyn have been proclaimed the new “It” girls.
But with no parental guidance–Mom’s a former beauty queen living vicariously through her daughters, and Dad is nowhere to be found–the three girls find themselves easy prey for the sharks and piranhas of show business. Posing in every hot fashion magazine, tangling with snarling fashonistas and soulless agents, skipping school and hitting A-list parties, the sisters are caught up in a whirlwind rise to fame that quickly...

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awards

1. • source: American Library Association
   • value: Alex Award

subtitle

A Novel

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   • description: Fiction / Humorous / General
2. • code: FIC044000
   • description: Fiction / Contemporary Women
3. • code: FIC045000
   • description: Fiction / Family Life / General