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    Three Girls and Their Brother: A Novel
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    Three Girls and Their Brother: A Novel
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    Three Girls and Their Brother: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Three Girls and Their Brother: A Novel

    Written by Stephen Pollan

    Narrated by David Drummond and Cassandra Campbell

    3/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    As granddaughters of a late, famous literary critic, the beautiful redheaded Heller sisters capture the attention of the New Yorker magazine, which promptly features them in a glamorous spread shot by a world-famous photographer. The fashion world sits up and takes notice, and in no time flat, three nobodies from Brooklyn have been proclaimed the new "It" girls.



    But with no parental guidance-Mom is a former beauty queen living vicariously through her daughters, while Dad is nowhere to be found-the three girls find themselves easy prey to the venal forces of show business. Posing in every hot fashion magazine, tangling with snarling fashionistas and soul-sucking agents, hitting A-list parties and skipping school, the sisters' rise to fame begins to unhinge them all. When the youngest-who never really wanted to be a model to begin with-does an off-Broadway play, she ironically begins to outshine the others, creating a vicious rivalry between the girls and prompting a virtual breakdown in their quiet, neglected brother.



    As the ruthless paparazzi catch their every controversy, an awful incident with a famous movie star blasts the girls-and their brother-out of the haze of fame, stopping their self-destructive spiral and reinforcing their love for one another.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Audio
    Release dateMar 18, 2008
    ISBN9781400176434
    Unavailable
    Three Girls and Their Brother: A Novel
    Author

    Stephen Pollan

    Stephen M. Pollan, one of America's most trusted and admired financial advisors, is the author of more than a dozen books, including the national bestseller Die Broke. He presently lives in New York City and Litchfield County, Connecticut, with his wife, Corky, and in close proximity to his four children and nine grandchildren. Mark Levine has been Stephen Pollan's collaborator for sixteen years. He lives in Ithaca, New York, with his wife, Deirdre, and his Newfoundland, Molly.

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    Reviews for Three Girls and Their Brother

    3/5

    62 ratings18 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I actually have no idea how I came to be in possession of this book, as it is not of a genre that I typically read, but LOTS of people give me their used books so, it could have come from a number of places. I was surprised to see that it is a LibraryThing Early Reviewers alum. At any rate, not my cup of tea. Modelling, fashion, hair and makeup - not things that I am familiar with or care about. I had a hard time keeping the two older sisters straight. When the POV changed, then the other characters all seemed to be action "out of character" - and not in a way that gave you added insight into them (i.e. how they see themselves vs. how the world sees them) - just like they were completely different people. I didn't think the writing was bad however, so might be of interested to people who care about the topics covered.
    • 4/5
      Adult fiction. Thoroughly enjoyable; a delightful read.
    • 2/5
      You know, I wanted to like this book - it seemed like it was going somewhere and I was going to like it. But nothing seemed to happen. The story is set in New York where the characters all have various "it" jobs - one sister is a model, mom is a former beauty queen, they attend the "right" schools. But really, I just didn't care. The characters were not interesting enough to keep my attention. On the one hand, the book could have been a lot lighter and been more of a easy read - or it could have gone the other way and developed some depth, but it did neither.
    • 4/5
      After one very successful photo shoot for The New Yorker, three gorgeous, red-headed sisters find themselves as the latest "It Girls" (think "Hilton sisters" plus some literary roots). Their brother in turn finds himself taking on the protector role against the unscrupulous and moral-lacking members of the entertainment/modeling world, the paparazzi and the hungry-for-scandal public. Told in four parts by each sibling. An Alex Award winner for 2009.
    • 4/5
      Now that it’s all over, everybody is saying it was the picture–that stupid picture was behind every disaster. . . .They may be the granddaughters of a famous literary critic, but what really starts it all is Daria, Polly, and Amelia Heller’s stunning red hair. Out of the blue one day, The New Yorker calls and says that they want to feature the girls in a glamorous spread shot by a world-famous photographer, and before long these three beautiful nobodies from Brooklyn have been proclaimed the new “It” girls.But with no parental guidance–Mom’s a former beauty queen living vicariously through her daughters, and Dad is nowhere to be found–the three girls find themselves easy prey for the sharks and piranhas of show business. Posing in every hot fashion magazine, tangling with snarling fashonistas and soulless agents, skipping school and hitting A-list parties, the sisters are caught up in a whirlwind rise to fame that quickly spirals out of control.When Amelia, the youngest of the three–who never really wanted to be a model in the first place–appears in an Off-Broadway play, the balance of power shifts, all the pent-up resentment and pressure comes to a head, and the girls’ quiet, neglected brother reaches a critical point of virtual breakdown. And against the odds, even as the struggle for fame threatens to tear the family apart, the Hellers begin to see that despite the jealousy, greed, and uncertainty that have come to define their relationships, in the celebrity world of viciousness and betrayal, all they really have is one another.
    • 4/5
      NYC - the world of models and "it" girls - very readable, funny, far out but believable. Rebeck stunningly captured the voices of smart, world-wise NYC teens, and made me care about their "15 minutes of fame." This was a glimpse into a world that I know is out there, but that I'll certainly never experience first-hand!
    • 2/5
      A superficial read detailing spoiled girls wanting to make it famous while trampling over their parents. Included in the aftermath is a brother who gets pushed to the side by the entire family in the pursuit of fame. A struggle to finish, but may be of interest to those hoping to make it big in modeling or acting and the price you apparently have to pay to make it happen.
    • 4/5
      The three red-haired Heller sisters have just had their big break. Riding on the coattails of their famous literary critic grandfather, Daria, Polly, and Amelia find themselves in a photo shoot for the New Yorker done by famous photographer Herb Lang. For Daria and Polly and their washed-up beauty queen mother, this open door to fame and fortune is all they could have hoped for, but fourteen-year-old Amelia had other things in mind for her future. In what seems mere moments, the three sisters, regardless of their intentions, skyrocket to fame, with photo shoots in all the major magazines, a billboard in Times Square, and even a part in an off-Broadway play for Amelia, who has hardly acted a moment in her life. As the girls sign a deal with an agent, and their mother actively pushes them even further into the spotlight in a desperate effort to relive her glory days through them, the three are swept away by the tide of their own sudden fame. Their brother Philip's lone voice of reason is drowned out by the din of those who only claim to have the girls' best interests at heart. Soon, even he is shipped off to his absentee father rather than allowed to "interfere" with his sisters' rise to fame. The narrative proceeds in four parts, each narrated by a sister, and one by narrated by Philip. Rebeck writes in a colloquial tone that gives the impression of each character telling the story from their own perspective just as they would speak, which works, but is at the same time irritating owing to the fact that teenagers don't make for the most eloquent narrators. It almost strikes you as a fictional attempt at an E True Hollywood story except for the fact that the characters' voices don't seem all that different from each other and Amelia, especially, has a penchant of excessively bad language. Nonetheless, Three Girls and Their Brother is a page-turner and a scathing indictment of what havoc fame can wreak upon a formerly normal family. Rebeck does a fine job of portraying the effects of the sisters' fame on everyone surrounding them from their fame hungry mother who easily loses sight of her responsibility to stand up for the best interests and safety of her children to the protective voice of reason brother who is slowly coming unhinged as he is tossed aside like so much garbage so that he can't stand in the way of the sisters' good fortune to the hoards of people so eager to exploit the newest "it" girls to make a buck that they will eagerly pack youngsters off to "meetings" with middle-aged movie stars who have anything but the best of intentions. Despite my occasional issues with the narration, I found myself totally absorbed in the story, wondering when and if someone would draw the line that would stop all the fame madness and hoping that lovable loser Philip might find his way back into the family that basically kicked him out on a whim and waiting to see how much of being used and posturing for the media the girls would take before they could finally learn to stand up for themselves amid the chaos.
    • 4/5
      The Heller siblings are descended from famous literary critic, Leo Heller, who wrote for The New Yorker. In order to boost ratings, The New Yorker decides to have the three Heller girls, all of them beautiful redheads, pose for a photo spread to be published in the magazine…a combination of beauty and brains (at least in a genetic sense!). As a result, the girls become the hottest models in town and their lives are turned upside down. Their younger brother, Ralph, goes along for the ride. Soon, the two youngest sibs have dropped out of school; Ralph has been shipped off to his estranged father so the girls can concentrate on their modeling careers and a mildly dysfunctional family is no longer a family at all.Reading this book is like having a bird's eye view of life behind the scenes of many young celebrities today. The Heller sisters have their lives disrupted by the paparazzi, every decision made by agents, publicists or by their mother, the very definition of "stage-mother". Every word or action is vetted to make sure they don't do or say something that could cause their career to blow up in front of them. The story is told from four perspectives…Ralph and his three sisters, Amelia, Polly and Daria. At first it seems that there is no real plot to the story, but as you hear from each member of the family, all the plot lines come together for a very satisfying ending. Rebeck infuses the story with plenty of humor. Sometimes you will laugh with the characters and sometimes you wiill want to slap them, but in the end, you will cheer for them and then wonder how much of that is true?
    • 5/5
      Absolutely love this book! Rebeck has given wonderful voices to these four siblings and has created a real page turner.
    • 3/5
      Three Girls and Their Brother by Theresa Rebeck is exactly as the title suggests – a story of three girls (Daria, Polly and Amelia) and their brother (Philip) as told in four parts through each of their individual voices as the girls progress from being normal teenagers to stardom. The three, gorgeous, red-headed, girls have their big break during a photo shoot for The New Yorker. As the three girls skyrocket to fame, Philip is left behind in his regular life, where he is dubbed a delinquent and exiled from the family home. While the story is told through the four voices, I found that often the voices read as the same person – an intelligent, young person forced into a life that they don’t necessarily want. I found that this book often read like a Hollywood gossip magazine, where the underage girls were placed in inappropriate and difficult situations and left to deal with them entirely on their own due to a lack of parental involvement. The decisions for the most part were made by the girls’ agent. I found myself feeling sorry for each of the individual characters. They each seemed to be overwhelmed by the lives that were placed before them. Overall, I feel the novel was entertaining and due to the many things that happen to the girls and their brother, I found myself wondering what was going to come next.
    • 3/5
      You can tell that this book is written by a playwrite. Lots and lots of dialog, and written from the perspective of different characters, this book reads somewhat like a play. It's the story of three sisters who suddenly find fame after being part of a photo shoot for the New Yorker. They are all beautiful and this beauty takes them a long way. Some of the journey is exhilerating, some of it is kind of creepy. And there in the background is their brother, who suddenly becomes persona non grata in the wake of the girls' upward trajectory. The characters are interesting, although to me there are some things they say and do that do not seem to fit in with their personalities. The kids' mother is a nightmare, but in a stereotypical kind of way. Some of the things she does seem too reprehensible even for the narcissist that she definitely is. The father is just as narcissistic and horrible. The book is basically a cautionary tale about the price of fame and how it can suck the soul out of people, and also how it can take on a horrifying life of its own. The girls' lives are kind of like a train wreck--horrible, but you can't look away. The pacing in this book is a bit uneven, and some of the characters are more realistically drawn than others, but overall is well-written and original, and inspires enough curiosity about what's going to happen next to keep you going to the end.
    • 4/5
      I wasn’t thrilled to receive “Three Girls and Their Brother” as an Early Reviewer Book through LibraryThing. The cover text sounded like a Brittney Spears or Lindsay Lohan story of fame and celebrity gone bad. My interests do not include reading stories about paparazzi and dollar worship perpetuated by the 24-hour media. But, as I am thrilled to be included in the world of book reviewers, I committed to read this book.And I was surprised by the depth of it. I read mostly for character in my fiction choices and this book was structured like Barbara Kingsolver’s “The Poisonwood Bible”. It looks all four characters separately and related the story from within their skin. Four siblings; a fourteen year old girl, a fifteen year old boy, a seventeen year old sister and another eighteen year old sister, each get a fourth of the book. You begin with the brother; Phillip, whose stature in the family and whose take on the newly acquired family fame, makes him the the odd man out. Although being nearly the youngest, he is the clearest thinker and grounds his family in common sense and his protective instinct. The girls go through stages of being thrilled with the attention to beginning to understand how insidious fame and fortune in modeling and show business are. Instead of being disgusted with a waste of another thin story of fame, it was fascinating to get an inside look at how this family navigates the sticky world of celebrity.The only thing that left me curious was how Rebeck might have handles an additional section from the mother’s perspective. This story and parallels in real life lead to questions on what are the parents thinking? Although the mother may be an insignificant and impotent as a parental figure while the story truly is about the growth and bonding of the “Three Girls and Their Brother””. The writing is excellent and if you chose to read this it surprise you with the authenticity of characters. Theresa Rebeck in her debut novel, has preciously been a playwriter and that influence is visible.
    • 2/5
      I was so looking forward to a lighthearted, fun read about the effect of celebrity on a normal family. However, early in the book, I found several distasteful elements: excessive foul language, underage drinking, and a mother who looked the other way when her 14-year-old daughter was sexually abused. I would normally quit reading at this point, but I wanted to give the author every opportunity, and I did discover the writing was fast-paced and witty...much like "reading" a movie. Not too surprising as Ms. Rebeck is a respected playwright. I can see this book becoming a successful movie adaptation for the teen and twenties crowd.Although I didn't get accustomed to the trash talk and found the plot rather thin, some readers would probably find this an entertaining satire of pop culture and the power of the paparazzi.I developed a mild affection for the reluctant "It girl" Amelia and pity for her un-hip brother. Other than those feelings and the departure from NY high fashion to the entertaining off-broadway chapter, this book didn't work for me. Books are appealing or repelling to different people for different reasons, so I urge you to consider the reviews and decide for yourselves whether or not this is the book for you.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. I saw it as Indie chick lit. told from the four voices of the kids in the family i really enjoyed the way each kid saw things. different enough to enjoy...but similiar enough to see that they were all related. once again this book would make a great film. told in the spirit of Igby as an indie film with the right cast it would be a lot of fun. of course there are some serious issues talked about it the book - but i saw them as "shit that happens" as opposed to being a book about serious issues. i think reading to much into the "issues" would be problematic. pick up the book and enjoy the read for what it is. i found that i didn't want to put the book down. looking forward to someone reading it and seeing it as the next Igby and taking the chance to make it into a film.
    • 2/5
      I enjoy books set in NYC so even though this seemed like chick lit I thought I might still enjoy it. The author tried to write the book from the perspective of the different characters but I found the voices to be the same. The one that needed the most work was Daria at the end of the book. At times I felt like it was fluff and then other times I thought that it was an okay satire on the celebrity world. Difficult topics such as sexual abuse and drugs would flit into the story, but then never delved into. It would have been better to just leave those portions out rather than have them hanging out there with no explanations.
    • 2/5
      A story of four teen-aged siblings wrapped up in the flash and glamour of modeling and New York City celebrities. The story is told in four voices; starting with the brother and then the sisters from youngest to oldest. These are bright, intelligent young people caught up in a world where most are assumed to be dim-witted. This causes some hilarious circumstances. Some parts of the book were laugh-out-loud funny.However, I must also state that as a parent of a teenager, I was appalled and offended at the situations that these young people are forced into by so-called responsible adults. These grown-ups should have protected them instead of throwing them to the wolves. I enjoy satire as much as the next person, but this was a bit much for me.I will say that I enjoyed the ending where the four over-exposed young people come together as a family in spite of all the obstacles working against them.
    • 4/5
      I like the way it started out, although I must admit to being a bit dimwitted as I was three chapters in before I realized that the book was written in four parts, the sisters and the brother each tell their version of events as they happened. As the story progesses, the reader will undoubtedly jump to wrong conclusions as to who is good, evil, and just plain nuts. The ending is not so much a disappointment as I think Rebeck has an excellent opportunity here to continue this story with a second book to deal with how the characters learned and moved forward in their lives, and hopefully still together as a family.All in all a good read, current without being too much so, and Hollywood flash, but with a bit of realistic inside info:)