BUST Magazine
Read In the Drink because it's about a girl who knows exactly how it feels to be us. For a change.
Jane Magazine
Claudia Steiner has to be the freshest anti-heroine I've read in a long time....This is no depressing drunk-noir; it's a great description of real life-the good, the manageable and the awful.
New York Times Book Review
...[B]reezy and confident....a slacker odyssey....Bridget Jones would be quaking in her loafers.
NY Times Book Review
...[B]reezy and confident....a slacker odyssey....Bridget Jones would be quaking in her loafers.
Time
Like Bridget [Jones], Christensen's Claudia Steiner is a mess, the kind who bumps along falling into bed with losers and who drinks water 'only in the form of melted ice in my drinks'...but Claudia is endearing because she remains appreciative of her own grittiness.
Publishers Weekly
The smart, urban and aimless have found their heroine in this charmingly original debut novel. Claudia Steiner is a funny, pretty, cynical 29-year-old who has "failed to connect" and who's disillusioned with her spotty employment history and restless, rootless existence. Having long ago lost the journalistic ambition that brought her to Manhattan, Claudia lives in a hole of an apartment on the Upper West Side. She can't pay her rent or bills and spends all her money on cabs, take-out food and nights of drinking at East Village clubs. Her bleak love life consists of drunken one-night stands, a passionate but doomed relationship with a married poet and a consuming but seemingly unrequited love for her dearest friend, William. Claudia works as a ghostwriter (and personal secretary) to 70-something Jackie del Castellano, bestselling author and socialite, a "semi-lunatic" spitfire whose outrageous mistreatment of Claudia borders on the sadistic (yet perversely hilarious). Claudia's miserable existence approaches its nadir when she makes some endearingly horrific blunders at work and gets fired. "A persistent little flame of self" and a wonderfully ironic sense of humor--including a kind of wry pride in her capacity for boozing--pull her through, however. Claudia comes to realize that the people to whom she's enviously compared herself aren't what they appear to be: Jackie is not as invincible as she seems, and even William, her idealized romantic hero, has his dark side. The discovery of compassion and connection in the midst of Claudia's chaotic and confusing life encourages her to redefine what she wants and what it means to be an adult. Though often poignant, her memorable story never cloys and is enlivened with refreshingly unsentimental humor and a sparkling ensemble of skillfully drawn contemporary urban characters. (May)
Library Journal
Late-twentysomething Claudia Steiner needs to make some changes in her life. She's mired in a dead-end job serving as Jacqueline del Castellano's personal secretary. (Actually, she's writing every word of socialite Jackie's kiss-and-tell novels, without getting the wealth or the glory.) Claudia is also wildly in love with her best friend, William, an adorable and successful lawyer who treats her like his favorite sister. Add to this mix a German psychotherapist mother, a roach-infested New York hovel of an apartment, and Claudia's need to slug down various forms of alcohol to help her muddle through her trying days, and you have a clear picture of Claudia's existence. Claudia Steiner is a depressive Bridget Jones; she's smarter and more introspective but with the same Gen X angst. Christensen's first novel is intelligent, witty, and completely readable. A definite purchase for all fiction collections.--Beth Gibbs, P.L. of Charlotte & Mecklenburg Cty., NC
NY Times Book Review
...[B]reezy and confident....a slacker odyssey....Bridget Jones would be quaking in her loafers.
Kirkus Reviews
A likable debut novel about the perils and travails of a young woman who comes to New York to launch herself as a writer. The literary racket was never the easiest game to crack, especially for young newcomers eager to be dealt in, but it may be harder now than ever. Claudia Steiner came to Manhattan fresh from college with big dreams of writing her way to fame and fortune, but it wasn't long before the wind dropped from her sails. After a succession of dead-end jobs (temp work, waiting tables, phone-sex scriptwriter), she eventually concluded that her novel was not going to be written anytime soon and took on more permanent employment—as personal secretary to Jacqueline del Castellano, the bestselling author of The Sophisticated Sleuth. A stroke of luck for Claudia? Not really. Not only is Jacqueline a hack, but she's a vicious piece of work as well, given to venting her monumental temper at anyone within easy reach–who usually turns out to be Claudia, of course. Claudia puts up with the situation as best she can, taking solace in nightly cocktails at the local bar and long bitch sessions with her best friend William. But stopgap arrangements are temporary at best: as Jacqueline's egotism becomes ever more unmanageable, Claudia's nightcaps turn increasingly into benders, and she eventually comes to realize an unpleasant fact—that she's in love with William. Talk about a rock and a hard place: If she tells him how she feels, she risks losing him as a friend. And if she quits her job with Jacqueline to finish her own book, she risks losing the one person well-connected enough to get it published. Is there light at the end of the tunnel? Of course, though(as usual) thetrip is more fun than the destination. Jolly, rollicking fun, told with good humor and easy wit.
