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3.55 AVERAGE
3.55 AVERAGE
I really enjoyed Pretend It's a City and had tickets to see Fran Lebowitz (although I couldn't go in the end). My sisters bought me this book in compensation (thank you) but I have to admit I expected more laughs. I do like the grumpy whimsy, though, and the essays are in easily-digested chunks.
If you’re going to pen complaints from an apartment in Greenwich Village (however modest it may be by New York standards), those complaints are only funny if you understand their relative lack of merit. By which I mean that the hilarity of people like Fran Lebowitz and Larry David isn’t that they don’t know they’re being assholes. It’s that they do know it, and don’t care. I think to some degree that very brand of comedy, if it didn’t originate in New York, is at least emblematic of the people who thrive there. There’s a fine line between petty inconvenience and actual hardship; a good humorist just knows how to exploit it.
FULL REVIEW
FULL REVIEW
As a Gen-Z woman living in Los Angeles, I am far from the target demographic. However, it's undeniable Lebowitz's sharp wit and sense of humor, which I absolutely adored. The collection of essays were just so engrossing; I could not put the book down! The only note I have would be that it is dated, obviously.
I love Fran Lebowitz as a personality, public intellectual, and professional party guest. Few can match her in nailing a clever, eloquent turn of phrase. Her pieces, when they're good (which is often, not always), are good because they come in small doses. This is how she was able to build a successful career writing for magazines. In book form, let alone a collection of two books, her wit quickly grinds itself and the reader down. By the time I hit Social Studies, this was a slog, even as an audiobook read by Fran herself. It didn't help that many of the pieces have not aged well.
funny
fast-paced
It’s Fran, folks. No surprises here.
If you think you’ll like it, you will. If not, you won’t.
If you think you’ll like it, you will. If not, you won’t.
Really enjoyed the second half of this reader, called "Social Studies." Found the first part, "Metropolitan Life," to be dated and not as funny. Glad to be familiar with Fran Lebowitz's writing now!
Listened to this on audio, but skipped through most of the second half. Yes, her observations are funny, but it’s a lot of lists and gets repetitive very quickly.
Some occasional funny bits but generally outdated and kind of exhausting to read
funny
medium-paced