May 19-25, 2005

artpicks

Superheroine Chic

by A.D. Amorosi

books

The last time I ran into Melissa Jacobs in her previous incarnation as a Philadelphia restaubar PR queen, she was trying to talk to me about why men were getting their heads shaved for charity at The Plough & the Stars. While the amount of drink that most men pour into themselves would be reason enough for any head-shaving (frig, I was whacked while she was talking to me), Jacobs seemed flustered, giving me "the look." You know, the one that says, "I'm too fucking smart for this." Not long after the bald incident, Jacobs ceased to be a flak, packing up her marketing phraseology and exchanging it for more novel words and ideas. The first fruits of that change, Lexi James and the Council of Girlfriends (Avon), may sound like a cross between an X-Men comic novella and those often-silly Red Dress Ink Novels like Tart and Marrying Up. Come to think of it, Jacobs has fused super-heroics, haughtiness and dignity into the limp chick-lit genre, conjuring up a splashy, pushy group of smart women who, though ultra-supportive of each other, do manage to fall on their foibles and maintain a sideways-glance's nastiness. Of course, it involves women of power (lawyers, celeb chefs; no one wants to read about poor women) who know that men are dispensable. And of course, the most knowing, most man-dispensing super-girl, Lexi, happens to be a PR powerhouse. But even Batman needs love. And in this story, no one is bald.

Melissa Jacobs reads Wed., May 25, 7 p.m., Penn Bookstore, 3601 Walnut St., 215-898-7595.