Remind Me Again Why I Need A Man
No, this isn’t me “stepping out of the sideboard” (I’m heterosexual, and if you can’t handle that, well that’s your problem, not mine), it’s a book review of a piece of chick-lit fiction with that title. I’ve already posted this on my Facebook visual bookshelf thingummy which is quite a nice application, but I thought I’d stick it on here as well, since I have a ‘review’ section myself.
This book was recommended to me by my wife, so it was with some trepidation that I opened the cover, having read the title. Chick-lit isn’t my cup of tea, but I was told it was funny, so I thought I’d give it a go.
It was funny. It really was genuinely funny; there were some laugh-out-loud moments, mostly at the relationship-related issues the main character finds herself in. There was only one problem with the book. Firstly, that it was a thinly-disguised “aren’t women brilliant and men crap” type of morality tale, and that (wait, that’s two problems!) all of the men were gross caricatures to the point of being cartoon-like and cardboard – it was difficult to believe that any of them were supposed to be real people.
If you want a self-affirming, and genuinely funny, warm book about the trials and tribulations of being a single thirty-something career-ish woman, this book will entertain you. But for me the weakness of the male characters to be anything other than a stereotype template (and I include the gay friend in that) meant that for me the book was quite badly let down.
And I am aware that authors read these sorts of things; and I am aware that bad reviews can be unpleasant; so I’d like to apologise to the writer, and point out that plenty of other people loved the book. Including my wife and her friend who had recommended it to her. And I guess it wasn’t intended for men in the first place. And it was funny. Just not for me…
paul canning says:
March 26th, 2008 at 1:24 am
‘gay best friend’ is always a caricature – see countless hollywood films of the past twenty years. all very pedestrian, i’m way past both ‘at last! some gay content!’ or being outraged. yawn.
as for your poor sideboard … spotting the title in my reader I’d assumed a bog-standard ‘man-crush’ on some sporting hero or other …
> http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Man+Crush
‘chick-lit’ ‘chick-flicks’ always bores me to tears precisely because they revolve around men; relationship with. like feminism never happened.
JackP says:
March 26th, 2008 at 1:26 am
@Paul:
cool. Thanks for extending my vocabulary there with ‘man-crush’. I just need to find an opportunity to use it…
Shannon says:
March 26th, 2008 at 3:04 pm
I watched the movie The First Wives Club a long time ago, and your review of this book reminded me instantly of how I felt watching that movie. It was pretty much saying that all men are both cheating pieces of crap and stupid while all women are brilliant and angelic. And instead of the gay best friend, it was the lesbian daughter.
Angel says:
December 19th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
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