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From Amazon
Bank's first collection has a beautiful, true arc, and all the sophistication and control her heroine could ever desire. In "The Floating House," Jane and her boyfriend, Jamie, visit his ex-girlfriend in St. Croix, and right from the start she can't stop mimicking her beautiful competitor, in a notably idiotic fashion. "I'm like one of those animals that imitates its predators to survive," she realizes--one of several thousand of Bank's ruefully funny phrases. But even as Jane clowns around, desperately trying to keep up appearances, she is so hyperaware it hurts. Again and again, the author explores the dichotomy between life as it happens and the rehearsed anecdote, the preferred outcome. In The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, even suburban quiet has "nothing to do with peace." Bank's much-anticipated debut merits all its buzz and, more to the point, transcends it. --Kerry Fried --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
My brother's first serious girlfriend was eight years oldertwenty-eight to his twenty. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Retarded,
By AD (Bay Area, CA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing (Paperback)
This book is badly written. The cover likens it to "Diary of Brigid Jones" but it's nowhere in that league. Throughout almost the entire book, the mood and narration is dark, with the headstrong "heroine" jumping from one dysfunctional relationship to another, lonely and full of insecurities. This part was fine.But all of a sudden, in the last chapter, she meets Mr. Right, and finds out that--gasp-- she has not been able to find Mr. Right beforehand because of her overreliance on reading self-help books and acting how "everyone" told her women should act. NOWHERE beforehand in the book does she even mention a self-help book or playing into some mold of "only call back after three days" etc; the ending is a complete cop-out. Even the style of the writing does a 360 in order to try and sell. Most of the book left me unsatisifed or sad, but the last chapter or two just plain annoyed me. This writer just tried way too hard to create a chick-novel.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Modern "American-Life" Presentation,
By
This review is from: The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing (Paperback)
Disclaimer: I highly dislike simplistic American accounts of "women's lives" and "liberations", Lifetime-esque books (Danielle Steele comes to mind), so I was quite reluctant to consider "The Guide" at first; as it so happened it was on my sister's shelf and since I had nothing better to do yesterday, I decided to give it a quick read.I was *very* pleasantly surprised. This collection of memoirs of a 'typical' average American woman reminds me of Sartre's "Age of Reason" ~ a tragic life lived with hopeless purpose in the search of the 'unknown' (reason, love, meaning). It doesn't preach and hand out lessons, it simply walks us through The Life Of. I am annoyed at the senselessness of most of the derogatory comments on Amazon: "It isn't horribly written, it just doesn't spark interest". If anyone is a harsh critic on literary style, it's me! And this book was NOT by any standards badly written. It flows beautifully, it is not presumptuous, does not feel contrived; most importantly: it's Honest. Another reader says they were "thoroughly disappointed with the pathetic nature of the main character" -- what are you going to tell me next? That Sartre's Mathieu is a pathetic creature for not living life with the given American 'purpose'? Spare your comments, please, unless you have something substantial to say! The 'pathetic nature' of this main character is NOT a Flaw of the book; it is its CORE; the essence of (most) humans is this 'helplessness', the need for approval, the want of Love. The character is not Weak because she searches for these essentials, she is Strong for trudging on the journey so courageously. And finally, ... 3 stars is a high rating for me -- I certainly plan on looking up Melissa Bank again on a future library visit.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book of interconnecting short stories,
This review is from: The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing (Paperback)
I put off buying this book because I associated it with "chick lit" (maybe it is chick lit, but as it should be). I changed my mind when I came across Bank's excellent story "The Wonder Spot" in an anthology. The same elements in that story can be found in this anthology: humor, intelligence, wit, great writing, messed-up relationships, and struggles with one's place in the world. Great!!
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