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arielml's review
1.0
This book was terrible. I couldn't finish it. It was trying way, way too hard to be funny, but it just came off as pretentious and uninteresting. Very little real plot or characterization, just gimmicks (the author's hand-drawn pictures and graphs, the entire book written in numbered "chaplettes" of anywhere from one sentence to a few paragraphs, the author writing about herself in the third person, etc.).
danidesantis's review
2.0
This book is a print version of a Woody Allen. Where idealism meets cynicism, where story-telling meets reality, boy meets girl and blah, blah, blah. The meta-moments are a bit difficult to bear, but I can't help but wonder if Patty, even then, was just making fun of herself and everyone else.
ljp817's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
lola425's review
3.0
I like the concept of chaplettes, telling a story in a non-traditional way. I like snappy writing, tinged with wink-wink nudge-nudge sarcasm. I don't like the whole meta thing--Marx inserting how hard it is to fill pages and then adding charts and asides. In the reviews I've read this is considered Marx's way of illuminating the process, allegedly it is very funny. I didn't really find it to be so. Believe me, I am a fan of the footnote and the aside, but at least for me Marx's asides didn't illuminate anything for me. Otherwise, I enjoyed it very much.
sharonfalduto's review
Weird structure to this one, where instead of chapters it had "chaplettes" there were rarely more than a paragraph or two long, and then the author kept inserting herself in--I mean, I think it was supposed to be funny, but I thought it was trying to hard.
lisadolak's review
2.0
I won this book through Firstreads by Goodreads.
I probably wouldn't have finished this book had it not been such a quick read. However, there were parts of it that were so insightful into relationships and people.
"How long were they together?..... Long enough for Gwen to have heard all of Wally's best stories and not hesitate to interrupt him when she felt she could tell one in a more entertaining way than he could......Long enough for Gwen to reach the conclusion that a king-size bed wouldn't be such a bad idea. Long enough for Wally to agree it wouldn't" This is just a piece of the page-long explanation for how long they were together. It made me laugh out loud. And there were many other examples of that type of writing. That's what kept me reading. Well that and I was on the beach with nothing else to read.
Then there were parts that I felt were simply one-liners. "Quarter sized hail changing to half-dollar size fell over all of northern South Dakota, leaving dozens without power. Southern North Dakota was so glad it gloated." By the way, this has not context whatsoever with the story as it was set in New York City. It was just a stand alone "chaplette" which is the author's over-mentioned word for how the book is broken into over 600 chapters. Some of which are no longer than 5 words.
It just seemed as if the author was so busy trying to impress everyone with her infinitesimal vocabulary to the point that she actual writes that Patty (the author frequently refers to herself and it is always in the third person) was able to spell infinitesimal correctly after only two tries, her quick wit and her style that it got in the way of a pretty good story about two people who meet, fall in love, have a family and struggle through the everyday druthers that is the American way of life.
It's funny but even as quick of a read as it was, I felt it would have been so much better had much the unneeded quirkiness been removed. This probably should have been published as a short story or as a magazine article.
I probably wouldn't have finished this book had it not been such a quick read. However, there were parts of it that were so insightful into relationships and people.
"How long were they together?..... Long enough for Gwen to have heard all of Wally's best stories and not hesitate to interrupt him when she felt she could tell one in a more entertaining way than he could......Long enough for Gwen to reach the conclusion that a king-size bed wouldn't be such a bad idea. Long enough for Wally to agree it wouldn't" This is just a piece of the page-long explanation for how long they were together. It made me laugh out loud. And there were many other examples of that type of writing. That's what kept me reading. Well that and I was on the beach with nothing else to read.
Then there were parts that I felt were simply one-liners. "Quarter sized hail changing to half-dollar size fell over all of northern South Dakota, leaving dozens without power. Southern North Dakota was so glad it gloated." By the way, this has not context whatsoever with the story as it was set in New York City. It was just a stand alone "chaplette" which is the author's over-mentioned word for how the book is broken into over 600 chapters. Some of which are no longer than 5 words.
It just seemed as if the author was so busy trying to impress everyone with her infinitesimal vocabulary to the point that she actual writes that Patty (the author frequently refers to herself and it is always in the third person) was able to spell infinitesimal correctly after only two tries, her quick wit and her style that it got in the way of a pretty good story about two people who meet, fall in love, have a family and struggle through the everyday druthers that is the American way of life.
It's funny but even as quick of a read as it was, I felt it would have been so much better had much the unneeded quirkiness been removed. This probably should have been published as a short story or as a magazine article.
mallorylocklear's review
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
aly_p's review
2.0
cute and quirky writing but with a paper thin plot that just didn't hold up. shame.