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mrsfligs's review against another edition
3.0
2 words that describe the book: East Village life
3 settings where it took place or characters you met:
*Setting: the East Village in modern-day NYC
* Mary Bellanova is a wannabe writer who works at a series of unrewarding temp jobs to make ends meet. One day she comes home from work, finds her live-in boyfriend Primo watching TV and ends up getting in a one-sided argument with him about his laziness and lack of contribution to the household ... before realizing he is dead. Primo's death is the jump start Mary needs to get her life in order.
* Primo is Mary's dead boyfriend, yet her efforts to deal with his death and find closure reveal more about Primo than Mary ever knew during his life and brings her into contact with a colorful cast of characters who end up becoming important people to Mary.
4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:
* I liked the fact that this book was better than I thought it would be, but I must confess I had rather low expectations going in. (It is published by MTV Books after all so I was just impressed the author was able to keep up a sustained story line! HAHA!)
* I liked how Mary gets her life in order by trying to tie up the loose ends of Primo's life. Primo turns out to be a better boyfriend while dead than alive. The book has a bit of a madcap feel to it—Mary accidentally joins a band! Mary scatters the wrong ashes at the dogpark! Mary goes on a bunch of bad dates!—that made for oftentimes amusing reading.
* I disliked the sans serif font used in the book! Don't publishers today know that a serif font is much easier on the eyes and should be used for long stretches of text?!
* I disliked how this is a book that I forgot about pretty much as soon as I was done with it. There is nothing wrong with this book, but it isn't one that will change your life or make you swoon or put much effort into writing a book review about it. However, if I was at a different point in my life (e.g., single, in my 20s and trying to live an "artful" life in a big city), I think I might have thought more of the book.
5 Stars or less for your rating?
I'm giving the book 3 stars. It was an OK read, and I didn't suffer while reading it. I think if you live in the East Village or have a lifestyle like those reflected in the book (which involves a lot of joining bands, scribbling stories, trying to live a life of "art") this book might be more appealing to you than it was to me.
3 settings where it took place or characters you met:
*Setting: the East Village in modern-day NYC
* Mary Bellanova is a wannabe writer who works at a series of unrewarding temp jobs to make ends meet. One day she comes home from work, finds her live-in boyfriend Primo watching TV and ends up getting in a one-sided argument with him about his laziness and lack of contribution to the household ... before realizing he is dead. Primo's death is the jump start Mary needs to get her life in order.
* Primo is Mary's dead boyfriend, yet her efforts to deal with his death and find closure reveal more about Primo than Mary ever knew during his life and brings her into contact with a colorful cast of characters who end up becoming important people to Mary.
4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it:
* I liked the fact that this book was better than I thought it would be, but I must confess I had rather low expectations going in. (It is published by MTV Books after all so I was just impressed the author was able to keep up a sustained story line! HAHA!)
* I liked how Mary gets her life in order by trying to tie up the loose ends of Primo's life. Primo turns out to be a better boyfriend while dead than alive. The book has a bit of a madcap feel to it—Mary accidentally joins a band! Mary scatters the wrong ashes at the dogpark! Mary goes on a bunch of bad dates!—that made for oftentimes amusing reading.
* I disliked the sans serif font used in the book! Don't publishers today know that a serif font is much easier on the eyes and should be used for long stretches of text?!
* I disliked how this is a book that I forgot about pretty much as soon as I was done with it. There is nothing wrong with this book, but it isn't one that will change your life or make you swoon or put much effort into writing a book review about it. However, if I was at a different point in my life (e.g., single, in my 20s and trying to live an "artful" life in a big city), I think I might have thought more of the book.
5 Stars or less for your rating?
I'm giving the book 3 stars. It was an OK read, and I didn't suffer while reading it. I think if you live in the East Village or have a lifestyle like those reflected in the book (which involves a lot of joining bands, scribbling stories, trying to live a life of "art") this book might be more appealing to you than it was to me.
sincerelykiwi's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
gunstreet's review against another edition
1.0
I'm a little surprised I finished this, because there was hardly anything at the start to keep me going. The writing wasn't strong, the story was full of seemingly pointless details and bland, unnecessary description, and despite having a female narrator and characters that were mainly women, the book somehow managed to be practically all about men. Nevertheless, it picked up a bit about halfway through and I knocked the rest of it off in a couple of hours. It went to some unexpected places and things came together interestingly in the end, but overall I wasn't impressed with the generalizations made throughout the book about women and men (not to mention some uncomfortable racial commentary), and the narrator wasn't given enough of a personality for my liking.
They say it's better to have a good story to tell than to write with skill; this book didn't really showcase either. I think my making it to the end says more about my inability to leave something unfinished than the draw of the book.
They say it's better to have a good story to tell than to write with skill; this book didn't really showcase either. I think my making it to the end says more about my inability to leave something unfinished than the draw of the book.
molly_benevides's review against another edition
4.0
I read this a long time ago, but I remember liking it a lot. It was one of the first really gritty books I read, and I was a sucker for the fast-paced, real-life kind of style.
montigneyrules's review against another edition
3.0
*Not counted in either 2015/2016 reading challenges.
Interesting, quick read.
Sure there is a premise behind Mary's story, but I felt there was no real plot. The story moves along with an intent, "find more about Primo", but I wasn't really sure if there was an intended end plan or we were just openly following Mary as she figures out her life without Primo.
I enjoyed the variety of characters, that had their own unique quality within the story. Of course, I enjoyed some more than others, but each helped develop this strange concept of New York life. It only seemed odd that so many people knew Primo, with such immense overlap, but hey it's her world.
Interesting, quick read.
Sure there is a premise behind Mary's story, but I felt there was no real plot. The story moves along with an intent, "find more about Primo", but I wasn't really sure if there was an intended end plan or we were just openly following Mary as she figures out her life without Primo.
I enjoyed the variety of characters, that had their own unique quality within the story. Of course, I enjoyed some more than others, but each helped develop this strange concept of New York life. It only seemed odd that so many people knew Primo, with such immense overlap, but hey it's her world.
notrachel's review against another edition
4.0
4 stars is generous but since I can't rate in increments...
This built to an end where I almost loved...something about it, the way I loved Chip Kidd's The Learners and The Cheese Monkeys. It was poignant without trying, a sort of effortless reverberation. I loved what the author did with the story...or maybe what he allowed the story to do.
It fell just shy of ending totally cheesy without stripping the characters of hope. Throughout there were was cynical, skeptical and temptuous. I held my breath, I dropped my jaw. He told a story and I was on the edge of my seat for every word. It was not flawless. At times, it faltered and flew far off track. But it would recover, it would settle back into its gait. The progression, the development of the main character felt nearly natural, unforced. A lot of this story felt unforced (except that scene with the foot-sucker. major WTH moment there) and that was a joy.
Yes, it also benefited from me being where I am in life, from my identifying with certain aspects of the main character's mentality (some...not all). Only a reread by some future me will show if this moments-after review stands the test of time.
This built to an end where I almost loved...something about it, the way I loved Chip Kidd's The Learners and The Cheese Monkeys. It was poignant without trying, a sort of effortless reverberation. I loved what the author did with the story...or maybe what he allowed the story to do.
It fell just shy of ending totally cheesy without stripping the characters of hope. Throughout there were was cynical, skeptical and temptuous. I held my breath, I dropped my jaw. He told a story and I was on the edge of my seat for every word. It was not flawless. At times, it faltered and flew far off track. But it would recover, it would settle back into its gait. The progression, the development of the main character felt nearly natural, unforced. A lot of this story felt unforced (except that scene with the foot-sucker. major WTH moment there) and that was a joy.
Yes, it also benefited from me being where I am in life, from my identifying with certain aspects of the main character's mentality (some...not all). Only a reread by some future me will show if this moments-after review stands the test of time.
andreaj's review
3.0
The absurdities and coincidences feel so natural to this story and characters that you never question how the chance interactions that drive the story actually happen. The last time I read this book I was living in the East Village and this re-read made me nostalgic for all those places that have closed down.
balancinghistorybooks's review
3.0
I loved Arthur Nersesian's The Fuck-Up when I read it several years ago; despite searching for his other titles in the meantime, they have been rather difficult to find. I ordered a heavily discounted copy of Dogrun online, and was very much looking forward to it. I liked the general idea here, but felt as though it was trying too hard to be clever and edgy. It feels quite dated, and I was never overly interested in any of the characters. Nersesian's prose is interesting and rather different, but I was distinctly underwhelmed with this novel; it was not darkly amusing, as I was expecting it to be, and despite the fact that it was a quick read, elements of it still felt too drawn out. I am oscillating between 2 and 3 stars for this one.