![]() ![]() ![]() Like any currency, social or otherwise, charm and allure can be transactional, and sometimes deals go south. The pair are street-smart, stylish, and magnetic, traversing Manhattan’s art and social scenes with a hustler’s spirit and a bird’s-eye view of who’s who and what’s what-or rather, what you can get, and from who, from eccentric artists to rich men to deceitful socialites. Through her shrewd observations and sharp prose, Granados deftly explores a kind of rare platonic intimacy, where shared histories and secrets connect as much as they cut. Through Isa’s diary entries, the book traces the nuances of the girls’ sisterly bond. Without a central conflict to propel the plot, Isa’s voice-effervescent, insightful, and funny-shines as the main draw. ![]() Isa and Gala are childhood best friends sharing a bed in a cramped Bed-Stuy sublet, selling secondhand clothes at a Chinatown market stall to scrape together enough money for a bodega sandwich and cab fare home. The book follows two 21-year-olds over the course of a scorching summer in New York in the late aughts. ![]() That’s the heart of Happy Hour, the debut novel from 30-year-old Toronto writer and filmmaker Marlowe Granados. But if you’re an outsider with neither, you need to be a little mischievous and a lot charming to get both. If you don’t have money, you need social status. To get by in New York, you need some sort of capital. In her debut novel Happy Hour, the Toronto-based writer and filmmaker reveals the latent power of hyperfemininity ![]()
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