"In the late eighties, New York has achieved an almost anarchic state of frenzy. Stockbrokers talk like artists, artists talk like stockbrokers, and everyone acts like there's no tomorrow. Alison, well, she's lucky if she can make it to her acting class. Each night is a new adventure, not infrequently catastrophic, from restaurants to clubs in a whirl of old boyfriends and new dilemmas. Several months ahead of Vogue and several checks behind in rent, Alison and her friends run on cocaine and their fathers' credit cards, and suffer various fixations--the perfect Chanel suit, blasé lust, familiarity with the rich and infamous--that make life less a party than an ordeal. In fact, her friends are developing habits that even Alison finds alarming; and when her sister blows into town, emotional bankruptcy isn't likely to be far behind"--From publisher description.