Author Olivia Goldsmith (First Wives Club) dies

[Jill1228]

I have read most of her books and loved them...her books were like a guilty pleasure! She will be missed

'First Wives Club' Writer Dies
NEW YORK, Jan. 16, 2004


Olivia Goldsmith, the novelist whose savagely funny debut book, "The First Wives Club," became a revenge fantasy for wives tossed aside in favor of younger women, has died of complications of plastic surgery. She was 54.

Goldsmith, a successful management consultant before she took up writing, died Thursday at Lenox Hill Hospital, said her lawyer, Steven Mintz.

"The First Wives Club," which came out in 1992, spun a tale of three women who band together to seek revenge after their wealthy, successful husbands leave them for younger partners.

The book sold millions of copies and it became a No. 1 film in 1996 starring Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton and Bette Midler. Hawn's character is a plastic surgery fan who in one scene pleads with her doctor for yet another procedure.

"I wrote `First Wives Club' in true indignation," Goldsmith told The Associated Press in a 1996 interview.

"It's not right. You choose a woman who bears your young and then you discard her for a younger, taller, thinner, blonder model."

"We are expected to have jobs now," she said. "We are expected to raise the family. We're responsible for the home, and we have to have thin thighs. Nobody can do it."

Among her other novels were "The Bestseller," "Flavor of the Month," "Young Wives," and "Switcheroo." A new novel, "Dumping Billy," is scheduled for a spring release. She had also just finished editing "Casting On," said her agent, Nicholas Ellison.

Ellison said Goldsmith had been in a coma since she suffered a heart attack Jan. 7 as she went under anesthesia for a procedure to remove loose skin from her chin.

While in the business world, Goldsmith became one of the first women to become a partner at the firm Booz Allen Hamilton. She decided to turn to writing after leaving New York for three years in London, Ellison said.

"It was a calling," he said. "She thought it would be a richer, more satisfying life."

In interviews, Goldsmith acknowledged having undergone a painful divorce, but Ellison said she did not write "The First Wives Club" from her own experience.

"In no way was it a mirror of her marriage or autobiographical at all," Ellison said. "It was just drawn from life, as satirists do."

Goldsmith was born Randy Goldfield in New York City. She changed her legal name to Justine Rendal and wrote under the pen name of Olivia Goldsmith.

She is survived by her mother and two sisters.

[honeychile]

I feel badly about her passing, too. It will make her books so much more treasured.

Surprisingly, my mama was really aghast that Ms. Goldsmith had passed away - she really took it hard!

[Jill1228]

Girl, so did I! I had just come into work and was going to the break room to freshen up before heading out to the salesfloor. The Sunday Seattle times was open to the "Passages" section. I saw that, had to look 3 times and screamed "NO!"

I loved her books and really took it hard

Her books were what I call "reading on vacation" or "reading during a hot bubble bath" books

Ya see why I called her books my guilty pleasure books?

[Sister Havana]

I saw the news on CNN on Sat. It's too bad...I love her books. I think The Bestseller is my favorite of them.

[CatStarESP4]

First Wives Club is one of my favorite movies. I have not read the novel yet. I saw the news of Ms. Goldsmith's passing on CNN and I couldn't believe it. It is very sad!

[MoxieGrrl]

This is so sad. I loved all of her books. She will be missed.

[alikat2]

She was (is) my favorite author.....I have all her books.

[texas*princess]

I love her books!

[kddani]

I loved reading her books as well. The only one I remember well is First Wives Club because I read them so long ago.

One thing though, I think it's kind ironic/weird/whatever that she died of complications of plastic surgery.

[honeychile]

I liked her book First Wives Club, much much better than the movie! Her books were definitely guilty pleasures - all the more treasured because of their "non-academic style"!

I went to lunch with my mama, her friend, and her friend's daughter, and we all discussed Ms. Goldsmith's passing away due to plastic surgery. There is a lot of irony in it, but it's also a fact of life. Surgery always has some risks. I've read where the Duchess of Windsor had so many face lifts, that she developed dementia from damage to her carotid artery.

I would be the very last person to try to talk someone out of plastic surgery, but I do think everyone should remember that there are risks.

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by kddani
I loved reading her books as well. The only one I remember well is First Wives Club because I read them so long ago.

One thing though, I think it's kind ironic/weird/whatever that she died of complications of plastic surgery.

Ditto. I almost posted that when this thread was first posted.

Although in actuality the death wasn't because of the plastic surgery itself, but because of a complication with the anaesthesia -- something akin to an allergic reaction, I think. Someone told me that a more skilled anesthesiologist would have noticed the signs sooner and had been able to stop before she died. But yeah, there are definitely risks to any plastic surgery and people should keep that in mind.