Putting on the Ritz

A deliciously, maliciously deft comedy of bad manners, high society, financial skulduggery, and romantic infighting.Roll over, Wilde, Wodehouse, and Noel Coward! Joe Keenan is back and so are his ineffable creations, Philip Cavanaugh and Gilbert Selwyn, the hilariously witty duo who've turned social climbing into a form of tcrrorism. In PUTTING ON THE RITZ, they invade the entourage of a tasteless New York real estate and media magnate, try to turn his talentless wife (a woman so rich she 'ovulates Faberge eggs') into a chanteuse, and vie for the affections of a paralyzingly suave magazine editor - in a novel whose comic complications, dizzying repartee, and cast of high-hat lowlifes are nothing less than irresistible.