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Title: Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner ISBN: 0-7434-1817-4 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 02 April, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (503 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: WHY has this book received so much praise??? It's awful!
Comment: This book isn't even worth writing an in-depth review on, because its stupidity can be summed up in a few sentences. It's absolutely horrible! The writing is mediocre at best, the storyline is predictable, Cannie's character is shallow and whiney, and the whole scenario of, "girl writes screenplay, girl coincidentally meets the biggest actress in Hollywood and they become best friends, actress loves girl's screenplay, screenplay is bought and girl becomes filthy rich", is completely lame. Everything about "Good in Bed" was unbelievable. Don't be misled by other reviews saying the writing was "witty"...it was about as witty as my left foot. Was Jennifer Weiner trying to write a novel or a sitcom? Dumb, dumb, dumb. If you still feel the need to buy this book, be sure to get it used so you can save money.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Well Written Fairy Tale
Comment: Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed is a well-written fairy tale, with an engaging, sympathetic protagonist. Imagine you are Cannie, a slightly overweight young woman who has just broken up with her boyfriend of three years. You open up a Glamour-Cosmopolitan type magazine to discover that your ex has a new column, "Good in Bed" and he has chosen to write about "Loving a Larger Woman." That's what happened to Cannie one morning, and it sends her off on a sort of voyage of rediscovery. We follow Cannie as she tries to come to terms with her weight issues, boyfriend issues, family issues and career issues. Her story is entertaining and humorous (not, though, laugh out loud funny like Bridget Jones or Getting Over It). The first half of the novel is grounded in realism and then about halfway through, the fairy tale kicks in. I enjoyed this book, particularly because as a romantic comedy, it wasn't obvious until well into the novel what guy she was going to end up with when it was all over. Jennifer Weiner writes well and has given us a wonderful protagonist in Cannie.
Rating: 2
Summary: I kept waiting for Mr. Big to show up...
Comment: If you read a lot, you'll want to avoid this book. If, on the other hand, you usually loathe reading, or are young (very young), have never read a book, or have never been exposed to a sitcom, you just might enjoy this. Let this review be a warning, then, to people like me: reasonably educated 20-somethings wondering just what this 'Chick Lit' phenomenon is all about. People who maybe wondered, as I did, what the need was, when literature already overflows with so many talented female writers (known simply as 'authors' and not 'women authors'), for a new genre that includes the word 'chick'. After a little research I'm certain it is nothing but a cynical marketing ploy that aims to separate insecure women from their cash.
Things are dubious from the get-go. The cover quotes a review that refers to Good in Bed as a "beach book", as if that is a favorable response from a critic. After the first few pages it is clear that this is a work whose thin themes, plot and dialogue are reconstructed from various movies and sitcoms, particularly such highbrow fare as Friends and Sex in the City. Here we have the tall, frank, and sexy best friend named Samantha, the doubtful but hip protagonist named Carrie--oh wait, it's actually 'Cannie'. But you get what I'm saying. I kept waiting for Mr. Big to show up, but he never did. At least not in the first third of the book, which was all I could stomach. For the most part Good in Bed reminded me of those countless straight to video Matrix rip-offs you see in Blockbuster, the movies whose covers also feature green graphics and whose titles are presented in the same 'Matrix' font as if they hope to fool us. This book was similar in that it seems to be a rip-off, or maybe more kindly, a 'novelization' of everything on TV. The situations, the jokes, the 'wit' so many reivewers mention here were lame and second hand and made me wonder why anyone would seek this experience from a book.
"But what about the writing?" one might ask. It's true this set-up may have worked from any of the 'postmodern' writers who couch the experience in some sort of baroque and wondrous prose. But that's not the case here. Page after page is filled with so many examples of what is commonly identified as 'bad writing' by any instructor; was there an editor involved, I wondered, or did they just rush the manuscript into print and wait for the cash to pour in? At least it was mildly satisfying to be able to hand Good in Bed to some friends from my undergrad creative writing class and say "Hey look: you *can* write completely obvious and uninspired sentimental story that prattles on and on without much of the traditional concerns and make heaps of dough!"...but you know, unless you're in a similar situation, you probably want to skip this one.
For anyone reading this review who did enjoy Good in Bed I recommend maybe picking up some short stories by Jennifer Egan or perhaps the Dave Eggers-edited Best Non-Required Reading of 2002; there you're sure to find some stuff written by women (and I guess for women to a certain extent) that shares the same concerns but that is much more satisfying from every angle.
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Title: In Her Shoes : A Novel by Jennifer Weiner ISBN: 0743418204 Publisher: Washington Square Press Pub. Date: 08 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Mr. Maybe : A Novel by Jane Green ISBN: 0767905202 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 11 June, 2002 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Bookends : A Novel by Jane Green ISBN: 0767907817 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 27 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Jemima J : A Novel About Ugly Ducklings and Swans by Jane Green ISBN: 0767905180 Publisher: Broadway Pub. Date: 05 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella ISBN: 0385335482 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 06 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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