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eososray 's review for:
The Portable Dorothy Parker
by Dorothy Parker
I like that I've read this book, that I now know what her writing was like but I can't say that I enjoyed the majority of her writing. Her stories seem to portray a deeply unhappy and bitter woman with some severe trust issues.
I found the stories a little depressing, Parker writes about the follies of relationships but instead of seeing the humour in the stories, all I'm seeing is the sadness that these really portray how some people live their lives. Maybe I missed the satire?? What I read instead was sarcasm, eye-rolling, you're an idiot, finger pointing sarcasm.
With so many of her stories about dysfunctional couples, I wonder just how her parents were and what her own relationships were like. The manipulative girl is a recurring theme and so is the bored unhappy marriage, I didn't like these but I did like the ones that are different, like Little Curtis, Clothe the Naked, The Custard Heart & Horsie, The Wonderful Old Man.
It certainly feels like she's writing about her own life and hating it in her stories and that she hates a whole slew of people around her, possibly because of that.
Was she trying to be ironic? Her stories never end up happy, though at the beginning of many you might think they would (specifically Big Blonde) and I get this idea that she is laughing at these characters, and not in a nice way.
I thought Part Two was much better. 'The Game' was one of the stories I really liked, the build up to the revelation at the end was very good and I thought this one had some great character development, you can envision just who they are. Possibly because it fits with modern sensibilities better than some of the others.
At the end of the book there is an interview with Dorothy where she is asked what the source of her work is and her answer is "It's easier to write about those you hate...."
That is definitely something that comes across for me.
I found the stories a little depressing, Parker writes about the follies of relationships but instead of seeing the humour in the stories, all I'm seeing is the sadness that these really portray how some people live their lives. Maybe I missed the satire?? What I read instead was sarcasm, eye-rolling, you're an idiot, finger pointing sarcasm.
With so many of her stories about dysfunctional couples, I wonder just how her parents were and what her own relationships were like. The manipulative girl is a recurring theme and so is the bored unhappy marriage, I didn't like these but I did like the ones that are different, like Little Curtis, Clothe the Naked, The Custard Heart & Horsie, The Wonderful Old Man.
It certainly feels like she's writing about her own life and hating it in her stories and that she hates a whole slew of people around her, possibly because of that.
Was she trying to be ironic? Her stories never end up happy, though at the beginning of many you might think they would (specifically Big Blonde) and I get this idea that she is laughing at these characters, and not in a nice way.
I thought Part Two was much better. 'The Game' was one of the stories I really liked, the build up to the revelation at the end was very good and I thought this one had some great character development, you can envision just who they are. Possibly because it fits with modern sensibilities better than some of the others.
At the end of the book there is an interview with Dorothy where she is asked what the source of her work is and her answer is "It's easier to write about those you hate...."
That is definitely something that comes across for me.