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1.0 out of 5 stars
What a piece of trash!, July 8 2004
By A Customer
OK, I am not a prude, by any means, but this book was morally reprehensable! The main characters were all selfish, acting without consideration for anyone but themselves. The casual affairs with married men and the cheating on significant others seems to me like it should be treated as a major character flaw. Instead, it is the basis of the entire plot! By the time the women moved past the moral transgressions, I had a hard time, as a reader, caring what happened to them because they were so stupid and weak. The author tried to convince us that these girls were strong and independent, but they were weak and spineless. They deserved every bit of unhappiness they had.And then there was the lame plot device of the roommate from hell who killed herself. First, maybe Jaffe could have spent a little bit of time explaining why Susan was so hard to live with. I've had bad roommates, and this Susan girl doesn't hold a candle to any of them. She has warts on her feet and she is awkward at conversation and turns the TV on loud. Wow. Satan's spawn, right in Manhattan! Then when she killed herself, the roommates "guilt" was so badly portrayed that it came across as how it had inconvienenced them. We're supposed to believe that they blamed themselves, but it never occurred to them to send flowers or attend a funeral? And then it was justified with, "Well, she had a common name and we would have never figured out who her family was." So now you have a character who you aren't invested in as a reader who is dead, then you add a whole bunch of "guilt" that is not fleshed out. The cherry for the top of this sundae of how not to write a novel is that in the end of the book, thier friend reveals that she didn't kill herself, he killed her. The girls all get together, and you should of had the justified reaction of why did you let me blame myself for 40 years, you were supposed to love me!, which you would expect for characters who think of nothing but themselves for the past 400 pages. Instead, you get a meeting of the mind(less) and they decide, "He's our friend. Let's protect him!" Fine, but for crying out loud, be mad at him! Utterly stupid. But what bothered me more than anything about this book was the need to define the time period with silly trivia. There was just something about the way that it was written that sounded like a DJ at a bad oldies radio station. Something like - this is the me decade. There was a man in the white house that they called "Tricky Dick". Whatever. Why mention cultural events if the time period they represent do nothing to shape the girls lives or perceptions of things? It was totally useless. In that respect, it fit in the overall theme of the book. If you want to read a good book about single girls looking for love, there are a lot out here. This one is really the lowest common denominator.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Mesmerizing, but somehow left me empty, May 16 2004
By A Customer
I did enjoy this book. Ms. Jaffe's writing style kept me eagerly turning pages. I was sad for Susan, happy for Leigh, and sorry for both Vanessa and Cady. But their personalities were set at the start of the story, and they didn't change very much over nearly forty years. And at the end I just said, "Well, that's it." I didn't feel like I'd witnessed anything special, just forty years in the three women's lives. Unlike some of the other readers who've posted reviews, I liked the surprise Ms. Jaffe threw in at the end. I don't want to say too much, but the memories these women kept alive for so many years would have been forgotten like last week's newspaper had things gone differently.I guess I would have liked to have understood Vanessa better. She was such an enigma to me. How does a person become so empty? Cady, whom I felt was pitiful, was much better fleshed out. Leigh's life was too perfect for much space to be devoted to. I'm not a fan of adultery, but I believe Ms. Jaffe was trying to make a point that some married men really do divorce their wives, while others string girlfriends along as long as they are allowed to. But yes, I did enjoy this book.
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2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, May 5 2004
Being a fan a Rona Jaffe, I was looking forward to another of her great reads. What a letdown The Room-Mating Season turned out to be! The characters were incredibly shallow--the only believable one was Leigh, who seemed to lead a fairly normal life. These three girls (women) thougt there was not a thing wrong with sleeping around--particularly with married men. About the worst of the three was Vanessa, who certainly was in dire need of a good therapist to find out why she couldn't even take a shopping trip to New York without picking up (and of course, sleeping) with any man who breathed. I found Cady to be very annoying--talk about feeling sorry for yourself. She inanely spent decades waiting for a married man who had no intentions of leaving his wife. Surely she could not have been that naive to fall for his "we don't sleep together & I'm staying in my marriage just for the kids" schtick---even a seventeen year old would have given him the boot. Come on!! Then she has the nerve to moan about her terrible life. How about looking at how it got that way? I could go on and on about these losers, but they are too ridiculous to warrant any discussions. Please, Miss Jaffe, let's get back to your real writing about real people we can relate to!!!!
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