Antoinette C. Nwandu
“If it’s with your last dying breath, you will straighten out the publishing world.”
Mystic Mary went “straight to books” with Antoinette, beginning the reading with a strong sense of the imperative that would drive this FM associate editor to right publishing wrongs and become the “guardian of the printed word.” Books seem to be an integral part of Antoinette’s future. She’s not the out-of-work bohemian pouring over her great novel in the corner coffe shop, but an administrator who will engineer that large-scale creation of books around the country.
Antoinette’s in-your-face attitude must have come off during the reading, because Mary was sure that the publishing maven is an extremely vocal gal. She’ll begin her post-Harvard life working in “some guy’s” publishing firm but will be put off by his, macho “my way or the highway” attitude. Free-lancing is always a good fallback, but, deep down, Antoientte knows that ownership of every step of the creative process is key. After a few face-to-face verbal tussles, the highway will begin to look better than ever. She will obviously have access to all that her top notch education has to offer, but without the compulsive need to drop H-bombs at a cocktail party. Antoinette often suffers from the Alice In Wonderland syndrome. She feels too big for a situation and has to bust out, looking for the next best thing. In this case, the next best thing is owning and operating her own publishing firm.
“If there are empty cupboards, you want to fill them,” Mary says. Antoinette uses her publishing ties to teach children about good nutrition. She is an independent woman and believes that children shouldn’t depend on their parents, but learn how to keep themselves healthy.
When not at the office, Antoinette likes to “flop” on the pillow-laden couch in her three-story Victorian home. Her three independent children are off doing their own thing at the moment, and her man is in the kitchen putting the finishing touches on tonight’s dinner. She and her husband have arrived at this happy place after taking the road much less traveled by. They are a non-traditional, gender-role swapping couple who don’t believe in following the rules. Antoinette found herself unmarried and pregnant with child number three before she and her mate “figured out how they wanted to order their family. ” Though Antoinette’s husband never had problems making money “stick to his hands like a magnet,” he gave up the corporate world in order to run their household and take care of the kids. He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t mind taking them out of school on a random fall day and taking them to the science museum if he thought it would better their education in a hands on way. Though he is the runt of a large family, Antoinette’s husband has asserted his expertise over the home, leaving Antoinette to run her firm and be actively involved in community service.
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If Antoinette C. Nwandu charged for the pleasure of her company, she would easily be a millionaire by now. But she’s just too darn nice for that. With Antoinette, there’s always a toothy grin, a sarcastic jab and a lap dance waiting for everyone. But when she’s not clowning around, she’s The Crimson’s favorite confidante, always listening thoughtfully as people bitch and moan—as people tend to do at 14 Plympton. Unafraid of anything and everyone, Antoinette’s the kind of woman who befriends the drunk clown at Whitney’s before taking on another bar regular in a game of chess. She thrives on interaction and her energy is positively contagious.
The future is obvious. Antoinette looks out her window and gazes at Central Park, thinking she can see her apartment on the Upper West. She almost wishes that she were at jury duty, where her hubby was, rather than dealing with this level of anxiety. But this was her rag—”A - the magazine”—and she was going to beat The New Yorker to the punch. The hangover which had been a throbbing torrent had settled down to a dull ache, and Ant wished she hadn’t had that third martini last night. Was she at the club for business or pleasure?—both, really. A job offer worth millions, but she wasn’t hearing it. The club had been packed, and Antoinette and husband had joined in the erotic ballet on the dance floor, freakin’ it as the top executives in the publishing industry bristled at her rejection. And now this—the story that would be like a rock thrown at a beehive. Antoinette shifted her focus from the world outside to the interior of her spacious office. Lining its walls and adorning the imported furniture were objets d’art interspersed with personal mementos: the souvenir from the honeymoon to Tanzania, a piece of the Titanic, the original copy of Proust’s Rememberance of Things Past, the kids’ fingerpaintings. Those fingerpaintings became a sudden interruption of her patient reflection when they reminded her of the charity ball for urban afterschool programs she was attending tonight. “Excuse me, Ms. Nwandu?” her secretary’s voice blared from the phone. “Go ahead -” Antoinette replied. “The White House is on the line” she said. So word of the story had gotten to Washington. “Thanks. I’ll take it,” Antoinette said, with a knowing smile. She picked up the phone and at the same time decided to take the rest of the day off to go shopping...