What would you do if you failed all your classes, lost your scholarship, and faced significant debt while keeping it hidden from your parents? Then, imagine a risky but potentially life-changing job offer coming your way. This is the premise of Susan Rigetti’s Cover Story, which I was drawn to on Goodreads. It promised a narrative as glamorous and interesting as the world of high society deception in Netflix’s series Inventing Anna.
What excited me most about Cover Story was not the chance to become another Anna Delvey of New York, but the opportunity to relate to the protagonist, Lora Ricci. Unlike Anna Sorokin, portrayed in Inventing Anna as a savvy, manipulative fashionista, Lora is a near-dropout NYU student whose future seems as unsettled as her finances with the costly rent in New York, and an unrest ambition with writing. Still, her ardent love for writing and her dream of fame and fortune in New York shines through. Lora’s journey offers a relatable perspective for us students, relating to our aspirations and fears.
Just a few chapters in, I was immediately struck by the dazzling world of New York’s elite: fashion, literature, journalism, and startups (ELLE, Penguin Classics, The New York Times, Y Combinator).
Cover Story begins with Lora Ricci, a young, innocent NYU student, and Cat Wolff, the icon of fashion, contributing writer of ELLE, and “enigmatic daughter of a clean-energy mogul.”. These two women, with drastically distinctive lives, meet at ELLE during a summer in New York.
Bewitched by Cat’s beauty and power, Lora is gradually drawn into a glamorous world filled with five-star hotels, lavish $100 morning tips, and the seductive covers of fashion magazines. She slowly steps into Cat’s world, starting her work with Cat as an ELLE intern in one of her articles. There, she first learns how the elite world works, how an article can be pitched yet taken down just in one minute, or how to lie to grab what you want. After countless unpaid hours assisting Cat, Lora is rewarded with an unexpected job offer – being Cat’s ghostwriter.
So the question is once again raised: What would you do if you failed all your classes, lost your scholarship, hid all of this from your parents, and faced a significant rent debt, then a glamorous yet risky job offer showed up?
Our protagonist, Lora, takes the opportunity. She drops out of college, tells her parents about what she did in New York, argues and fights with them, then says goodbye, turns off her phone and moves to the same hotel as Cat Wolff, starting a year writing strenuously for Wolff, in search of “the right story.”
Halfway through the book, I vicariously sank into the elite world of New York through Lora. I worked tirelessly – writing, drafting, editing, revising, and returning to do it all over again, mostly every day, “working harder than the 9-5 job.” She once self-describes her job like that. At night, sometimes, Cat lets Lora join in and go with her to fancy restaurants, parties with various celebrities, wear beautiful costly dresses, and exclusive skyscrapers.
Getting along with all of the glory of New York is the dilemma of being a ghostwriter. It is a writer’s conflict: should I write for someone to take all the fame and glamour? Or should I write for myself and myself only just to see my works being buried in the unnamed authors’ sections?
In the last few chapters, the narrative is intensified as Lora becomes more involved in Cat’s world, revealing layers of complexity involving FBI investigations, tax fraud, fake identities, and high-stakes financial schemes that span bitcoins and offshore accounts. Each fast-paced and riveting chapter of Cover Story peels back the curtain on the opulent lives of New York’s elite, exposing the underbelly of a world built on fragile facades.
As I continued Lora’s story, I realised that what we share – our passion for writing – can elevate and undo us. More than anyone, I relate to how Lora could agree to the job of working for Cat Wolff, even as a ghostwriter – an anonymous writer. If I got a job to write jokes for Jimmy Fallon or write articles for The New York Times under a different name, I would do that, then come home, open my phone, read that article, and giggle at my accomplishments. But those works come with illegal activity and immorality, and above all, the cost to ourselves. Having a passion is like loving someone, so seeing your loved ones happy without you is tough. It is challenging, especially for a writer, for your writings to be praised under an alien name.
Lora’s life, filled with twists and unexpected turns, mirrored my vicarious journey through the echelons of New York society. Like Lora, I also questioned the cost of our dreams and the paths we choose to follow them.
The story’s climactic twist kept me turning pages until the early morning hours, my heart racing with each revelation. Gradually, I collected enough puzzle pieces to form a general picture of what was happening. As I finished the book, I lay staring at the ceiling of my room, overwhelmed by the questions it raised about ambition, truth, and the very nature of deception.
Who are the con artists, and how should we view them?
Are the witty and ambitious social climbers mere criminals? Or are they victims of this cruel and unforgiving capitalist world that rewards illusion over authenticity?