Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner
Newest Review: ... the men's perspective of love etc, and he's dating new people much to her upset. A brief reunion ends up in Cannie becoming pregnant an... more
Read this for free and asked for my money back
Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner
Member Name: MartynColebrook
Product:
Good in Bed - Jennifer Weiner
Date: 27/03/02, updated on 27/03/02 (88 review reads)
Rating:
Advantages: You can put it down when you want to
Disadvantages: Everything
It's rare that a book provokes me into writing this sort of review given that I usually try to focus on the positive aspects. However, 'Good in Bed' is one of the leading candidates for the most irritating, pointless, inane pieces of (and I shudder to call it this) literature I've come across. This book was leant to me by a friend, whether or not it was meant as a joke I'm still not sure but to be perfectly honest this is a waste of a tree taking up shelf space in book shops where they could simply have left the shelf empty and it would have been more productive.
I've a feeling the term for this type of book is 'chick lit' (not rhyming slang either) which could explain why I didn't get on with it, but then it could also be that after the first 120 pages, Julie Weiner comes to the conclusion that the book is going to finish too early so she must span it out for another 179 (and it feels much more) or so pages with a series of vacuous characters, more coincidences than a Shakespeare comedy and a conclusion that is as flaccid as narrative itself.
'Good in Bed' is the tale of Candace Shapiro, a mid-late twenties middle of the road female journalist, whose boyfriend, Bruce, decides to make her the feature of his own newspaper column. Unfortunately the first title of the column is 'Living with the Larger Woman' which, as the reader realises, is not the most complimentary headline he could have concocted, especially not when Candace realises that the thinly-veiled name he has given the subject bears a distinct similarity to hers. Bruce swiftly becomes an ex leaving Candace to spend a few chapters wallowing in her own self-pity before she decides to join a slimming club.
Unforuntunately there is a brief but significant reunion between the two at the funeral of Bruce's father (bet you weren't expecting that!) which introduces the main part of the plot. Regardless of the ending that we can
all spot a mile off, Weiner now leads her heroine off into the sunset with her new found friends for a spot of Thelma-and-Louise style female bonding and male bashing (oh, and shopping, naturally), the most important friend being Maxi the movie-star model who is disillusioned with herself and her career.Indeed, after about 2 paragraphs of her irritating, self-absorbed whinging, we are equally despondent.
If I make any reference to the rest of the novel, including one of the soon to be met characters, I'll ruin the climax of the book (which you'll guess after about 100 pages anyway) but if you make it this far and the book is still in one piece then you've my every admiration. Apart from the loose plot, unispiring dialogue, cliched ideas and general absence of any talent or original thought on show the rest of the novel seems to be okay. This is a book to be avoided with a passion!
I've a feeling the term for this type of book is 'chick lit' (not rhyming slang either) which could explain why I didn't get on with it, but then it could also be that after the first 120 pages, Julie Weiner comes to the conclusion that the book is going to finish too early so she must span it out for another 179 (and it feels much more) or so pages with a series of vacuous characters, more coincidences than a Shakespeare comedy and a conclusion that is as flaccid as narrative itself.
'Good in Bed' is the tale of Candace Shapiro, a mid-late twenties middle of the road female journalist, whose boyfriend, Bruce, decides to make her the feature of his own newspaper column. Unfortunately the first title of the column is 'Living with the Larger Woman' which, as the reader realises, is not the most complimentary headline he could have concocted, especially not when Candace realises that the thinly-veiled name he has given the subject bears a distinct similarity to hers. Bruce swiftly becomes an ex leaving Candace to spend a few chapters wallowing in her own self-pity before she decides to join a slimming club.
Unforuntunately there is a brief but significant reunion between the two at the funeral of Bruce's father (bet you weren't expecting that!) which introduces the main part of the plot. Regardless of the ending that we can
all spot a mile off, Weiner now leads her heroine off into the sunset with her new found friends for a spot of Thelma-and-Louise style female bonding and male bashing (oh, and shopping, naturally), the most important friend being Maxi the movie-star model who is disillusioned with herself and her career.Indeed, after about 2 paragraphs of her irritating, self-absorbed whinging, we are equally despondent.
If I make any reference to the rest of the novel, including one of the soon to be met characters, I'll ruin the climax of the book (which you'll guess after about 100 pages anyway) but if you make it this far and the book is still in one piece then you've my every admiration. Apart from the loose plot, unispiring dialogue, cliched ideas and general absence of any talent or original thought on show the rest of the novel seems to be okay. This is a book to be avoided with a passion!
Summary:
