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If you don't like to hear crazy stories from people who've made mistakes in their lives or can't see the humor in being caught with your pants down, then this book is not for you. If you can laugh at your own neuroses, if you've ever caught yourself being a know-if-all and turned red in the face, if you've ever looked back on a less-than-stellar phase of your life and had no idea what you could've been thinking, you will find this book hilarious.
You can't help but hate the nameless narrator for being a doormat, so even while the villain is obstreperous and appalling it's a little difficult to root for his victim. This is a quick and largely unfulfilling read, with passages of humor--particularly at the beginning--that will lure in those who have ever known someone like the despicable Eugene, with his self-righteous self-obsession. Marx's writing is biting enough to offer some laugh-out-loud moments, although for the most part the book is brief and superficial.
I read it with the same morbid fascination with which I read People Magazine: wondering how people can be so stupid, and yet, thanking the world that they exist, so I can feel superior in every way. Kind of funny. But also, there were a few laughs. I doubt that was the author's intention in this case, but that would be the motivation for a reader interested in this tale. Probably great if you are the kind of woman who likes men to have sex with you, then he goes and has sex with your best friend, and your sister, and then your mother, and then your poodle, and then you have sex with them again and then you pine over them when they go to have sex with your therapist to whom you're telling your tale of woe. The protagonist of this novel is an absolute idiot (despite many many MANY mentions of her ivy league background and her attempts to complete a PhD) and makes Christie Brinkley look like Steven Hawking by comparison.
Who is this hysterically funny to. I keep waiting for funny, but funny is not happening. Do not pay for this book, you can borrow mine. by the readers who think this is funny. I too am over-educated, sophisticated, well-traveled, but this is not funny.
but this was a real page turner, I read it in two days. I don't normally read books and/or don't finish them.
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