A middle-aged doctor's wife who's read all the hip books and seen all the trendy plays is experiencing a mid-life crisis when a childhood friend shows up at her door. The references in this novel are all of New York City. The accents are very New York, and the hypochondriac mother who lives down the hall is quintessential New York. But the laughs are universal, and the acting is superb. Amy Aquino, Richard Kind, Estelle Harris, and JoBeth Williams inhabit their characters so completely, and with such presence and expression, that listeners will feel that they're right in the story, drinking wine and discussing Nietzsche in a Manhattan condo.