Review by New York Times Review
The cutesy premise of "Nine Women, One Dress" is that a single little black dress is equipped with the mystical power to fundamentally alter the lives of those who happen upon it, kind of like the classic Canadian TV series "The Littlest Hobo," only with an inanimate piece of clothing taking the place of an improbably wise German shepherd. The structure seems designed to mimic such ensemble comedies as the films "Love Actually" and "Valentine's Day," jumping back and forth between the narration of a bewildering assortment of characters, including a patternmaker, a movie star, two sales clerks, a private detective, a publicist, a model and an undertaker. Screwball antics ensue, even though half of these people aren't women, don't get to wear the dress and yet still benefit from its unimagined powers. The sheer volume of stories at hand makes the reading experience haphazard, while few of the narratives distinguish themselves in any meaningful way. The most prominent character is New York itself, which pops up in scenes that feel frequently like stock footage: dinner at the Four Seasons, matinees at the Paris Theater, cocktails at Sardi's, shopping at Bloomingdale's. Toward the end of the novel, when the dress in question is almost destroyed by a cruel and unusual act of God, it's hard to summon any sadness to see it go.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 23, 2016]
Review by Booklist Review
Morris Siegel creates his last beautiful black dress after seven decades in the dressmaking business. The influence of this particular dress on nine women (and a few men) is loosely woven together in this lovely novel. In alternating chapters, we meet a rookie model whose career is launched when she's chosen to wear the dress on the runway; an aging Hollywood star who is out of place on Broadway; and a private detective who falls in love with the married man she's following. There's also a delightful set of stories that revolves around Bloomingdale's: salesgirl Natalie wears the dress to an event with a movie star; clerks Tomás and Ruthie give the dress to secretary Felicia as they set her up on a surprise date with the boss she's been in love with for years; and a rude customer eager to get her hands on the last size small gets her comeuppance. This quick read is at turns poignant and laugh-out-loud funny, and readers who like chick lit will find it absolutely adorable.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Like the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, Rosen's witty debut novel features a transformative item of clothing, not for four girls coming of age, but for nine women living in present-day New York. Max Hammer's little black dress, as executed by 90-year-old pattern-maker Morris Siegel and singled out by Women's Wear Daily, becomes the dress of the season. Rosen adroitly ties together her stories: the author is at her most romantic with Natalie, a Bloomingdale's saleswoman, and Felicia, a middle-aged woman secretly in love with her widowed boss; she is at her most clever with Sophie, an underemployed Brown grad using selfies and hashtags to fashion the life she wants. And using multiple points of view enlivens and adds a lightheartedness to the book's romantic story lines-Natalie and Felicia tell their stories, but so do the men in their lives, Jeremy and Arthur, not to mention a host of others united by the fateful dress. This is a fun book, tightly plotted and perfectly timed for the summer season. Agent: Alexandra Machinist, ICM Partners. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Imagine the movie Love Actually in book form and you've got this charming debut. The story follows an "it dress" from New York's fashion season and how it affects the lives of the women who wear it. -Felicia, longtime assistant to widowed -Arthur, receives the garment from a matchmaking staffer at Bloomingdale's. Jeremy, a movie star who was recently wrongly outed, goes on a publicity date with Natalie, who wears the little black number. There are also vignettes with Sally, who first modeled the dress in a fashion show; Max, the patternmaker for the dress's designers; and Medina, a young Muslim woman who sheds her burqa to see herself clad in Western fashion. We also meet the clerks at Bloomingdale's, who know their customers and are not afraid to work a little magic in their lives, using only fabulous clothing. VERDICT Chick lit at its best. If this book were a dress, it would fit everyone perfectly and flatter everyone's figure.-Jennifer Mills, Shorewood-Troy Lib., IL © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A charming story that twists the lives of New Yorkers around a little black dress. Or is it the other way around? A little black dress catches the eyes of the buyers lining the fashion runway and becomes the dress of the season. The dress finds its way in varying degrees into the lives of nine women as it is bought, returned, and borrowed from the third-floor dress department at Bloomingdale's. The title may sell the novel shortthe story is not just about nine women; it's as much, maybe equally so, about the men who share their lives. The back story hearkens to the days when families fled Europe's looming Holocaust. Two young immigrants build a dressmaking business, and decades later their little black dress catches the eyes of New York buyers as Sally Ann Fennely, fresh from Alabama, makes her debut stroll down the runway. And thus begins the love affair with the LBDa Max Hammer creation featured on the cover of Women's Wear Daily. It's a testimony to Rosen's artful vision that she fills the pages with so many characters, each with a unique story, without muddling the waters. There is the dressmaker and his son, a movie star and his "beard," Bloomingdale's employees who take the lives of their customers into their own hands, an attorney, his girlfriend, his executive assistant, a private detective and the husband she spies on, a young Muslim girl who finds the dress and offs her burka for a try-on, and more. It all works. Each scenario is revisited and broadened as the chapters unfurl. If there's a flaw, it's in the voices of the characters (each within their own chapters), which sound too similar, recounting their tales with the same subtle, ironic humor. Rosen's debut novel is rich in relationships, written with clarity and humor and surprise twists that bring the tale to a satisfying conclusion. A pure pleasure to read. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
