Review: College Girl by Patricia Weitz

College Girl by Patricia Weitz

General Fiction

Riverhead (December 26, 2008)

336 pages

From Amazon:

College senior Natalie Bloom is beautiful and ambitious, but also incredibly insecure and painfully uncomfortable with the subject of sex —let alone the act. She’s awkward at developing friendships with girls, but it’s sexual attention from boys that really makes her lose her cool. At age twenty, she’s a virgin—never having had a boyfriend. Avoiding her peers, Natalie hides out most weekends in the library. That is, until she meets Patrick, her fantasy (she thinks) of a cultured, intellectual Prince Charming—and everything changes. But the more time they spend together, the more Patrick brings out her worst insecurities. Natalie loses her virginity before she’s ready, and as their sexual activity escalates, Natalie’s emotional responses become dangerously self-destructive. Ultimately, she must take extreme measures to reclaim her sense of self, her confidence, and her ambition.

As someone currently finishing up their college experience, I think that I can speak with authority when I say that this is one of the most true-to-life stories about a post-adolescent woman that I've ever read. I identified with a lot of what Natalie felt and experienced throughout this novel. While her many of her experiences or decisions were different from my own, they definitely mirrored those of some friends and acquaintances of mine.

Weitz gives an excellent and accurate account of what is reality for many young, college-age women.

Natalie can be aggravating, endearing, sad and naive - everything that a reader could hate in a more simple character in a more shallow story. But here, it works. Just when your ready to give up on her, thinking that she'll never learn, she changes - grows.

The story itself is simple. There is no traditional plot. No, it's all about Natalie and her progression, regression and subsequent redemption. And it's satisfying all the same.

Grade: A-

Review: A Total Waste of Makeup by Kim Gruenenfelder

A Total Waste of Makeup by Kim Gruenenfelder
Chick-lit

St. Martin's Griffin (December 27th, 2005)

384 pages

From Amazon:

Charlize "Charlie" Edwards certainly knows, in theory, what it takes to lead a successful and happy life. She owns a nice house in Silverlake, LA's trendiest neighborhood. She has glamorous and loyal friends who accompany her to the hottest clubs in town. And she works as the personal assistant to Drew Stanton, Hollywood's sexiest movie star. But she's also turning 30, chronically single, and faced with serving as maid of honor at her younger sister's wedding. Charlie finds herself struggling to juggle the chaos of wedding planning (while wondering if she'll ever wear the white dress herself), her all-consuming job for lunatic boss Stanton, and a serious crush on Jordan, a photographer on the set of Drew's latest feature--a man who might actually return her feelings.

I can't rave enough about this novel! Yes, it falls into the chick-lit genre, but it's completely devoid of the vapid, two-dimensional characters and highly unlikely escapades that are all too common in women's fiction. And, If that wasn't enough of a reason to pick it up, it's hilarious too.

Charlie is a perfect heroine - smart, funny and flawed, she will remind you of, well, you. What pushes this novel to the top are the great secondary characters. Her friends and family were all pretty realistic and well drawn out. Each brought their own brand of humor to the story as well as added to it's depth. Not only was I able to see bits of my family and friends amongst them, but I also found myself identifying with Charlie's utter embarassment at their hands.

Gruenenfelder is going right up there next to Sophie Kinsella for me (which is saying a lot).

Grade: A

Review: Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack

Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack

General Fiction

Delta (May 29, 2007)

352 pages

From Amazon:

Some women shop. Some eat. Dora cures the blues by bingeing on books—reading one after another, from Flaubert to bodice rippers, for hours and days on end. In this wickedly funny and sexy literary debut, we meet the beguiling, beautiful Dora, whose unique voice combines a wry wit and vulnerability as she navigates the road between reality and fiction.Dora, named after Eudora Welty, is an indiscriminate book junkie whose life has fallen apart—her career, her marriage, and finally her self-esteem. All she has left is her love of literature, and the book benders she relied on as a child. Ever since her larger-than-life father wandered away and her book-loving, alcoholic mother was left with two young daughters, Dora and her sister, Virginia, have clung to each other, enduring a childhood filled with literary pilgrimages instead of summer vacations. Somewhere along the way Virginia made the leap into the real world. But Dora isn’t quite there yet. Now she’s coping with a painful separation from her husband, scraping the bottom of a dwindling inheritance, and attracted to a seductive book-seller who seems to embody all that literature has to offer—intelligent ideas, romance, and an escape from her problems.

Joining Dora in her odyssey is an elderly society hair-brusher, a heartbroken young girl, a hilarious off-the-wall female teamster, and Dora’s mother, now on the wagon, trying to make amends. Along the way Dora faces some powerful choices. Between two irresistible men. Between idleness and work. And most of all between the joy of well-chosen words and the untidiness of real people and real life.

I'll admit it - the cover is what drew me to this book. Something about that red lipstick and the books; what more could a girl want? Fortunately for me, there is more to this novel than its cute cover.

Despite the fact that Dora obviously has family and friends who love her, she's utterly lonely when the novel starts - and it's all her fault. She sequesters herself up with piles of books for long stretches of time, unsure about what she wants out of life yet unwilling to examine the issue any further. So she settles for a sort of half-life of her own making.

Kaufman and Mack do a great job of flushing out Dora and making her seem real. Being a book lover myself, it was easy to identify with her. In fact, I think I know all too well how easy it is to hide between pages when life gets rough.

Smart, witty and touching - this is chick lit with a brain and heart. With all of the literary quotes and elements in the story, one would think that reading this could easily turn into a serious undertaking. However, the authors wrote with an effortless flow that made Dora's journey enjoyable, heartfelt and even a touch educational.

Grade: A-

Debut Review: Going Down by Jennifer Belle

Going Down by Jennifer Belle

General Fiction

Riverhead Trade (July 1, 1996)

272 pages

From Powell's:

With a sharp eye for satire and a keen comic sense, Belle chronicles the adventures of nineteen-year-old Bennington Bloom as she wanders between the upscale brothels of New York City and the unsuspecting arms of her new boyfriend. With a father who loves his dog like a daughter, a shrink who is hard of hearing, an ulcer, and tuition (paid in cash) to worry about, Bennington is working overtime to keep it all together. Whether spending the night in an abandoned hotel pool or punching pushy old women on the subway, Bennington is doing what she can to survive - starting at an all-time low, only to find herself going down from there.

One of my favorite things to do in my downtime is to peruse the shelves of my friends on Goodreads. That's how I made the decision to order this one off of Bookmooch. Most of the books that I mooch are titles that I'm not convinced that I want to spend the cash on. Thanks to the mixed reviews that I read online - Going Down fell into that category.

After the first few pages, it became apparent why there were so many varying reviews. This story is very polarizing - you either love it or hate it. Belle's style of writing has a lot to do with that. While the first-person narrative is not quite in the stream-of-consciousness style, it does give the reader the feeling of being in the head of someone with ADD.

It's like Holden Caulfield got a sex change and was transplanted in the 90s as Bennington Bloom. Imagine a love child between Woody Allen and J.D. Salinger and you get Jennifer Belle. If you're looking for a plot driven story, this isn't it. I can't pinpoint what exactly kept me reading. Whether it was the ramblings of the protagonist or the raw, dirty portrayal of life in New York, I can't say. Whatever it was, I was pretty captivated by the randomness and dark humor of the novel.

Grade: B+

Reviews

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A Total Waste of Makeup by Kim Gruenenfelder

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College Girl by Patricia Weitz

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Going Down by Jennifer Belle

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Literacy and Longing in L.A. by Jennifer Kaufman and Karen Mack

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