Don't be too hard on Amy Sohn, she does love her neighborhood, just like the rest of us. The recent publication of her novel Prospect Park West (Simon & Schuster) which takes place in our very own backyard, has achieved critical acclaim but has caused some feathers to ruffle among the local strolleratti. What people don't realize, is that the author of this hilarious novel, which pokes fun at several Park Slope stereotypes, including The Park Slope Mom, is, well, a Park Slope Mom herself.

The Park Slope Reader sat down with Amy on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Union Hall (one of the few local establishments not mentioned in her book) to learn more about the woman who so deftly lifts the veil and holds up the unflattering magnifying mirror to the face of Park Slope and motherhood in general. As I was waiting at the bar, a petite, stylish woman with fun curly hair and eyes so green you could notice them even across the dimly lit establishment, smiled a sparkly smile and gave a friendly wave. Surely this was not the lady people had been so vilifying in the local blogs and mom group message boards. It was. It quickly became clear that this wasn't going to be a typical interview but more like two women sitting down for a quick drink taking a break from kids, husbands, and the crazy BierFest Scavenger Hunters who were scouring every corner of The Slope that day.

In case you are one of the five people in Park Slope who hasn't heard of Prospect Park West by Amy Sohn, it is a novel set in the Summer of 2008 in Park Slope. It follows the intrigue, foibles and intertwining fates of four women, (who also happen to be mothers.) Part of the book's charm is that Amy accurately captures familiar places and faces; for example she writes how some of the moms tend to avoid the 9th Street playground on sweltering days because of the lack of shade. So true. She describes the crowds and intolerable length of the check-out lines of the Park Slope Food Co-op (or the Prospect Park Food Coop, as it is called in the book) in a manner so true that it is painful to relive through her prose. Street names, buildings, and landmarks are all comfortably familiar to us but give the non-native reader an excellent sense of place. Inspired by Tom Wolfe's Bonfire Of The Vanities in which New York City in the 1980s is sublimely depicted, Amy set out to capture the essence of Park Slope in 2009 with the parenting boom and fascination with celebrity - one of her characters is a famous actress who lives in a mansion on Prospect Park West.

Amy satirizes many aspects of Park Slope, for example she exploits the concept of the over protective mother. Like Shakespeare's Fool, she can sagely point out what is wrong with the parental establishment here with a sense of irony and a chuckle, yet some people take offense; they think Amy is a Park Slope "Hater." This confuses Amy because she really does appreciate the genuine sense of community we have here. In fact, Amy was born and raised in Brooklyn Heights and has always lived in Brownstone Brooklyn. She even calls herself a "Brooklyn Booster."

"So it's like your mom, only you can make fun of her?" I asked. "Funny you say that," Amy replied "I heard someone say that simultaneously loving and hating your neighborhood is a New York tradition. Native New Yorkers, for the most part, have a sense of humor about where they are from, native New Yorkers are comfortable with the idea that you can feel two things about someplace at once."

According to Amy, you also have to have a sense of humor about your child and parenting, "Chances are if you are holier than though about your neighborhood, you are that way about your kid as well. The two go hand in hand." She describes her parenting style as "Disciplinarian with attachment rising." And like a good Park Slope Mom she is duly invested in her 4 year old daughter's education, diet and has has also read the standard parenting fare (even if for one of her articles); she too employs the count downs, time outs, and distraction techniques that has her characters using, albeit tongue in cheek, in her book.

So, when she is not writing about our fictionalized versions of our neighbors, what does Amy do here? Besides frequenting the usual adult haunts like Stone Park or Le Bar Bleu, atop Hotel Le Bleu Amy takes full advantage of her surroundings as a parent. Amy's perfect "kid day" starts with "Connecticut Muffin and then taking the B67 up Seventh to Atlantic Terminal (if "I have to pick up Fall items at Daffy's or Target) and we get chocolate graham crackers at Starbuck's. Then we go to the library, the Pacific branch, and read CDB! by William Steig. Then we walk down Fourth Avenue to Brooklyn Boulder and I spot my kid on a climb. We walk home, order pizza in, watch a little Sponge Bob and I have a bath with my kid and an early bedtime for everybody. Done." Amy actually enjoys spending time with her kid, unlike one of the characters in her book and rediscovering children's book classics with her daughter is one of her favorite things to do with her.

Like one of the children in her book, Amy's daughter will attend her zoned neighborhood school next year and she looks forward to becoming part of that community as well, perhaps even joining the PTA, perhaps even donning the school's logo on an alternative type of apparel, like a baby doll. Like most Brooklyn parents she is concerned with the overcrowding of the "better" public schools and suggests that fraud (as in fake addresses) is the culprit. "Apparently they are cracking down [with home visits] but we have to remember that a neighborhood school is a relatively new concept." This is the genuine concern of a genuine resident. Not some neophyte newbie who is claiming Park Slope as her own simply for dramatic purposes. She has the right to be proprietary. Amy is an active member of the Food Coop (she had just done a make-up shift the day before) and supports the public library.

According to Amy, most think of the "Park Slope Mom" stereotype as "affluent, became a mother over 35, over-weaning, worrying, child with an unusual name, hovering ... in general though, people [may] mean granola/attachment, baby-wearing, co-op shopping and having lots of babies less than two years apart, being all about the children ... In reality, Park Slope mothers are more diverse than that. Those are the women that we see, the most publicly annoying. And I include myself in that." So she is not holier than thou, as many were thinking. She does think though that Park Slope Mothers don't take care of themselves aesthetically as well as they should but thinks that is simply for no other reason that lack of time and when she says it, it sounds less like a judgment than an observation. Again, like Shakespeare's Fool, she talks about "The Bra Problem" we have in Park Slope and that we should spend the time and money to get properly fitted. Hear! Hear!

Amy is a lot more than a mom. Though not into categories, she says that she is a writer first, then a mother. "And wife. Wife is important. And Jew. Jew's got to be in there somewhere." And she is about more than just Park Slope as you can tell from her column in New York Magazine and previous novels, My Old Man, and Run, Catch, Kiss.

Whatever you may think of Prospect Park West, or Amy Sohn, it doesn't matter. Like a true New Yorker, it all rolls off her back. Amy is tough and smart, and she says what is on her mind, you may not like it, but there it is. What can be more New York, more Park Slope, than that?

Locally, You can catch Amy reading from Prospect Park West

• Sunday, 11/1/09 @ 3 PM
  Sunday at Sunny's Reading Series
  253 Conover St. in Red Hook, Brooklyn
• Monday, 11/16/09 @ 8 PM
  Franklin Park Reading Series
  curated by Penina Roth
  with Said Sayrafiezadeh (When Skateboards Will Be Free),
  Ian Mackenzie (City of Strangers) and Lianne Stokes
  Franklin Park, 618 St. Johns Place, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
• Tuesday, 12/8/09 @ 6 PM
  Pen Parentis Reading Series
  Libertine Hotel in NY, NY