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A review by kaybee435b2
Mimi by Lucy Ellmann
3.0
"Mimi" by Lucy Ellmann has some good points. Ellmann is certainly an enthusiastic writer with a quirky, unique style. I've never read a book with so many exclamation points (!), capital letters (FOR EMPHASIS), and silly lists with lots of commas (usually inserted for humor, sentimentality, emotional impact, and the like).
The story is told from the view of Dr. Harrison Hanafan, a middle-aged plastic surgeon living in New York City. He has a wonderful sister, Bee, who is an artist living in Canterbury, a tiresome ex-girlfriend named Gertrude, and a lovely stray cat that he finds and adopts. He loves music (especially Bach) and carry-out soup and classic movies. What is missing? True love, of course, until Mimi bursts on the scene.
The story has heart and some humor, but this is mixed in with some truly distasteful bits, a terrible tragedy, and lots of feminist rants. Perhaps this would have played better if told from Mimi's point of view because she is a very likable women. Coming from Harrison, it just doesn't work very well and I didn't find his point of view believable or appealing.
There are some good romantic novels for middle-aged folks being written, but I'd not recommend this one to anyone unless they are really sick of our patriarchal society and want to read a very offbeat romance.
This book has the craziest Appendix that I've ever seen. There are recipes! There are SONGS. There are quotes, a tragic list of news headlines about violence against women, and a Manifesto from Harrison Hanafan. And finally, the author included an enormous and fascinating alphabetized list of Acknowledgements with literally hundreds of friends and family, writers, musicians, celebrities, places, pets, philosophers, artists, etc, etc. Whew!
The story is told from the view of Dr. Harrison Hanafan, a middle-aged plastic surgeon living in New York City. He has a wonderful sister, Bee, who is an artist living in Canterbury, a tiresome ex-girlfriend named Gertrude, and a lovely stray cat that he finds and adopts. He loves music (especially Bach) and carry-out soup and classic movies. What is missing? True love, of course, until Mimi bursts on the scene.
The story has heart and some humor, but this is mixed in with some truly distasteful bits, a terrible tragedy, and lots of feminist rants. Perhaps this would have played better if told from Mimi's point of view because she is a very likable women. Coming from Harrison, it just doesn't work very well and I didn't find his point of view believable or appealing.
There are some good romantic novels for middle-aged folks being written, but I'd not recommend this one to anyone unless they are really sick of our patriarchal society and want to read a very offbeat romance.
This book has the craziest Appendix that I've ever seen. There are recipes! There are SONGS. There are quotes, a tragic list of news headlines about violence against women, and a Manifesto from Harrison Hanafan. And finally, the author included an enormous and fascinating alphabetized list of Acknowledgements with literally hundreds of friends and family, writers, musicians, celebrities, places, pets, philosophers, artists, etc, etc. Whew!