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Because she can, not

February 21, 2007 By pia

3WW (Three Word Wednesday) will be on Thursday night or Friday

I was sent this book to mention. It’s by a woman who used to work for Judith Regan. To assume that I would like any book debasing Regan just because I don’t like her is absurd.

I will be talking about much more worthy books next week or the week after

I have nothing against chick lit. I read and like much of it. I like Jennifer Belle’s books for one example.

I have to admit that I never liked The Devil Wears..and I did take classes with Weissberger’s teacher.

Because she can is in the same vein only even more poorly written. I actually found myself counting the cliches. At one point the heroine makes a joke about cliches. I don’t think that it was ironic.

I wasn’t going to mention it but since it’s getting much publicity, it does read like a first draft that was written in three months. She said that it was revised heavily and entire parts were redone. One reason that i didn’t mention it was because it was a reviewers copy and I assume, or hope that most of the cliches were taken out.

There’s no love for language, nothing that distinguishes it from a hundred other books. The only time it comes alive is when she’s in scenes with her boss.

I read an interview with Bridie Clark where she said that boss from hell stories resonate so much because women now have so much vested in their careers. Excuse me, but where did the boss from hell come from? They weren’t born bosses. We have all had them.

I once had a cat fight with a boss. Actually we were friends so it was complicated, but a lot easier than having male bosses who would chase me around a room or want to sleep with me, and I couldn’t make a big stink because it wasn’t really illegal yet or I felt that I provoked it someway.

This book was great for me however. When I read it, I could literally see and feel the plot devices. It made me realize that I hadn’t been writing fiction because I thought it was so difficult. That’s when I began to write fiction in short short posts here.

I have been integrating the characters into a larger framework. As I wrote yesterday I have just begun submitting articles. I have reframed my memoir and am almost up to sending it out.

I know how easily this can sound like sour grapes. First I have no idea what a sour grape really means but in the spirit of cliches….

It amazes me that the same kind of book is published over and over again. When I went to Cancun I brought a few books with me. I left the hard covered ones because I didn’t need to reread them.

For the first time I brought a book home from vacation. The Last of Her Kind by Ingrid Nunez, because I wanted to read it and read it again. I doubt that there was a cliche in it. I wouldn’t know as I was too engrossed in the story. That’s a good book to me. One that makes me think, makes me slow down and take in the whole story.

The characters weren’t like me. They did come from that amazing year–1968, where everything and more was possible. It made me realize, all over again, that everybody who survived that time has their own stories, and gave me a logical starting point.

Good books inspire. The Last of her Kind, inspired me greatly.
Not such good books make me want to write better ones. There’s a huge difference.

Filed Under: books

« Rejection and Tom Waits
wilted drawer ink–3WW fiction »

Comments

  1. Doug says

    February 21, 2007 at 2:29 pm

    According to Aesop, a fox was walking past a vineyard and wanted some grapes. She tried and tried but couldn’t reach high enough. So she left saying to herself, “Ah, those grapes were probably sour.”

    You asked, right?

  2. Bone says

    February 21, 2007 at 6:23 pm

    Pia, when someone pays you to review their book, it’s considered polite to say something nice 😉

    Loved these lines: “Good books inspire. The Last of her Kind, inspired me greatly.
    Not such good books make me want to write better ones.”

    You should copyright those.

    Oh, and is there no rating system?

  3. TonyG says

    February 21, 2007 at 6:29 pm

    This is a well-written review. Do you have experience doing reviews?

  4. AMG says

    February 22, 2007 at 6:13 pm

    I picked up The Devil Wears Prada once…and put it right back down. After flipping through a few pages I felt like I was reading a high school girl’s attempt at prose. And this is coming from a a girl who’s favorite guilty pleasure is chick lit.

  5. jacob says

    February 22, 2007 at 7:19 pm

    Your hired. 😉

  6. mary says

    February 26, 2007 at 6:00 am

    I read the last of her kind also and was truly moved by the story. So many interesting characters. The essay from the prison was so moving. I would read this book again too.

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About Me

I live in the South, not South Florida, a few blocks from the ocean, and two blocks from the main street. It's called Main Street. Amazes me too.

I'm from New York. I mostly lived in the Mid-Upper East Side, and the heart of the Upper West Side. It amazes me when people talk about how scared they were of Times Square in the 1970's and 1980's.

As my mother said: "know the streets, look out and you'll be fine."

What was scary was the invasion of the crack dens into "good buildings in good 'hoods." And the greedy landlords who did everything they could to get good tenants out of buildings.

I'm a Long Island girl, and proud of it now.
Then I hated everything about the suburbs. Yet somehow I lived in a few great Long Island Sound towns after high school.

Go to archives "August 2004" if you want to begin with the first posts.

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