HomeMineral MakeupThis Is Not Chick Lit: Original Stories by America's Best Women Writers |
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| Customer Reviews: | | Average Customer Review: ( 16 customer reviews )
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19 of 20 found the following review helpful:
 This IS a shining spotlight on modern short literary fiction Sep 19, 2006
By Jessica Lux
This short story collection is worth the cover price for editor Elizabeth Merrick opening essay alone. Merrick does not hate chick lit (she freely admits to enjoying and respecting several titles), nor does she want it to die a painful death. Merrick, after smartly summing up your basic chick lit heroine, metropolitan setting, token gay friend, wicked boss, diet rules, and relationship drama, grants chick lit its place in the world of genre fiction. With this collection, Merrick simply wants to shine the light on modern literary talent. She wants to share these stories with the world--stories about pushing emotional limits, experiencing new cultures, setting personal challenges (a steak-eating contest, anyone?), and musing about social status and careers. This is a book to read with a stack of sticky flag-notes in hand, to mark stories which inspire the reader to pursue further study or exploration of specific topics.
The opening piece describes the experience of a Nigerian immigrant in pursuit of the American dream. Her remarks about this upside-down country still resonate with me--America is a place in which rich people look starved and poor people are fat, where rich people dress in shabby clothing, and in which not everyone owns the gigantic house and car that represent the American dream. In another contribution, Francine Prose manages to masquerade a contemplative essay as a fictional story, and the gimmick succeeds wildly. Aimee Bender's short story reads pretty much like a piece in any of her other collections, making her one of the weakest (but still excellent) links in the book.
The authors represent a veritable who's who of modern literary talent. Most of them have recent full-length releases (Jennifer Egan's The Keep is not to be missed). My one (small) complaint about the collection is that the short author bios are relegated to an appendix, rather than appearing immediately after each author's story entry. When I am consumed by a narrative, I want to explore more about the author immediately. Also, with the plot fresh in the reader's mind, connections between the author's life and her writing will leap off the page.
The genius of this collection is that there is no overarching theme or message; these stories are unified by their numerous distinctions. The title clearly attracts media (and blogger) attention, but I hope that readers of both genders pick this one up. The writers may be female, but their written words prove that they are talented writers, pure and simple.
18 of 20 found the following review helpful:
Read the title with care Sep 14, 2006
By Pine Marten
Disclaimer: I'm a man. Presumably because of this, I got an odd look from the bookstore cashier buying this book with "chick lit" in large hot pink letters on the cover. If you're concerned about this happening to you, you can of course buy this book from this very website and it will arrive in a discrete brown package.
If, instead, you stumble across this volume in a bookstore or library, but inadvertently skip the word "not" on the cover, you may be surprised by a curious absence of handbags inside.
What you will find instead will include, among other things, a steak-eating contest, a disgraced publicist's unusual efforts to rehabilitate a dictator, and an explosives-filled FBI sex robot's philosophial debates with the Unabomber.
Whatever your gender, I don't think it's an exaggeration to say there's not a dull story in the bunch, and I'd be surprised if you don't put down the book wanting to read more by at least one, if not several, of the authors included in this excellent collection.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
 Quirky characters come alive Dec 07, 2006
By Armchair Interviews
Subtitled: Original Stories by America's Best Women Writers
In her introduction, Elizabeth Merrick writes, "Chick lit as a genre presents one very narrow representation of women's lives." While not disparaging Chick Lit as a genre (she mentions writers she likes, including Jennifer Weiner, for example), Merrick proposes that there are a lot of great women writers today that do not fit exactly into that genre, that present varying and strong alternative representations of the varying and strong experiences women face in their lives.
The stories in this book range from funny to deadly serious to touching. A publicist that decides to represent a despotic general tries to make him likeable by putting him in a knitted hat. A woman contemplates her wedding night--and runs. Another woman volunteers at a shelter for women and children, and through the experience reflects upon her own loneliness and neuroses. A couple experiences their last moments together before terrorists crash their plane into one of the Twin Towers.
This book contains everything you'd expect from Chick Lit: first dates, reflections on high school crushes, and relationships gone bad. But it is more inclusive and expansive than what is expected from the Chick Lit genre, with the thought-provoking, the touching and the downright quirky, driving the stories to places as deep and painful the lives of real women living in their thoughtful, touching and quirky real lives.
Armchair Interviews says: Fantastic read!
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Worth the hype and then some Aug 15, 2006
By K. Kahler
"bibliophile73"
These stories are by turns insightful, poignant, fanciful, hilarious and heartbreaking. A fabulous collection that belongs on the shelf of every short story aficionado.
3 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Great variety of stories Aug 03, 2006
By J. Lin
I really enjoyed this collection of stories. The stories really varied in theme and tone, which I liked. Some of the stories I especially liked were "Selling the General" by Jennifer Egan, which blended great humour about PR in the modern world with some poignant thoughts about loss of self esteem when your career goes awry, "Embrace" by Roxana Robinson which was a really moving story about one couple's life together told with a Rashomon-like changing of view points between the man and the woman, and "Gabriella, My Heart" by Cristina Henriquez, a beautiful story about a young gay man, and the one woman he loved before he realized he was gay.
See all 16 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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