A gallery girl's cannily observed and whimsically acerbic romp through the glamorous Chelsea art scene.

When figurative painter Jeffrey Finelli is run over by a cab in front of the Simon Pryce Gallery on the night of his first opening, the art world falls all over itself for a piece of the instantly in-demand work by the late "emerging artist." At the center of the show is an enormous painting called Lulu Meets God and Doubts Him that becomes the object of most desire. As the artist philosophically muses before meeting his untimely end, "It represents the creative endeavor."

After Finelli's death, the gallery receptionist, aspiring artist, and protagonist, Mia McMurray, finds herself at the center of the art world's most sensational story. For suddenly everyone wants Lulu. Mia, in her clever, clear-headed voice tells the ensuing tale, the details of which she finds endlessly amusing and unavoidably alluring. While she watches a Birkin-toting wannabe collector, a well-muscled Irish artist, a real estate baron, and niece/muse of the artist, Lulu Finelli, duke it out over the oversized piece, Mia, a la Holly Golightly, finds her own creative outlet and artistic identity, not to mention love.

As The Devil Wears Prada demystified the world of high fashion, Danielle Ganek's delightfully funny and insightful first novel paints the oddly captivating New York City art scene as it exists today.

"In this enjoyably tart art world sendup, winsome, aperu-spouting Mia McMurray (think Party Girl-era Parker Posey) is a gallerista — one of the invariably decorative young women who act as a gallery's de facto concierge, and 'who is always, always watching,' as Mia herself puts it. A mysterious portrait by the recently late Jeffrey Finelli (killed by an errant cab in front of Mia's Simon Pryce gallery) gives the novel its winningly clumsy title and sets up its main conflict, between grasping art collectors and representatives of Finelli's estate. Former Mademoiselle and Woman's Day editor Ganek, herself a significant art collector, offers sharply drawn characters and convincingly savvy details. That the book's most important female collector is presented as a loudmouthed and overdressed refugee from Absolutely Fabulous gives a sense of its waspish humor. But Ganek stops short of crude caricature, and Ganek's portraits of the variously sneaky, ridiculous and pretentious art world denizens are tinged with affection and depth. The tone is sophisticated chick lit, and there's a sweet love story threaded in, but what most clearly animates this debut, and sets it apart, is a real sense that art matters. (June) Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Just as The Devil Wears Prada demystified the world of high fashion, Ganek's delightfully funny and insightful first novel paints the oddly captivating New York City art scene as it exists today.

Danielle Ganek has been an editor at Mademoiselle and Woman's Day magazines. She is a collector of contemporary art and photography. This is her first book.