The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing (1999 original; edició 1999)

I read this because I saw it on a list of books that captured the experience of breaking up, or of looking for love. It did have some nice nuggets to that effect, like the line "you drink gasoline to keep warm" as she goes over the end of one of her relationships. I thought her relationships with her family, especially her brother, were sweet and well-developed, too. The ending was a little pat for my tastes, but overall I enjoyed the book. ( )

Entertaining account of a girl coming to grips with love, sex, relationships and all that jazz. From awkward teenager to quirky woman, you pass through her relationships a bit like you passed through your own. ( )

Jane Rosenal is funny, straightforward, uncertain, beautiful (but not nearly as beautiful as her great aunt, the novelist), vulnerable, and kind. She’s disinterested in her career in publishing, or maybe she’s just not that good at it. She’s equally not so good at her life, often baffled by relationships, her own and others, and missing out on that guy who gets her for who she is. Although verbally witty, she’s not acerbic, which probably marks her out as not a real New Yorker. And although she finds and loses loves, it’s rather as though she’s still waiting for her life to begin.

Through a series of standalone stories, Melissa Bank introduces us to Jane at the age of 14 and then returns to her at key points in her life. In all but one of these stories, Jane is the main protagonist. And it is Jane’s voice, with running piquant commentary (not always uttered aloud), that carries us along. She’s quirky adorable and you’ll want her to find what she needs even if it isn’t what she wants. But you’ll also feel her humiliations and fear that things just might not work out for her.

In most of the stories, the tone is breezy and light even though the subject matter may be difficult, such as infidelity, or concerning, such as abusive relationships or end-of-life dramas. As such, that works better in some stories than in others. That’s not exactly an inconsistency, just an acknowledgement that the book is built out of separate stories and not through-written as a novel. However, some of these stories are so distinctive and droll that they must surely get reprinted (or read) even today as standalones. ( )

Dorky chick lit title...a diverting read but that's about it. BTW, I learned absolutely NOTHING about hunting OR fishing. ( )

This "novel" is incredibly disjointed, and fails to flow or make sense at times. It reads more like a collection of short stories, rather than a book about our heroine, Jane. There are two chapters that seem like they were added in accidentally. Jane is a shallowly sketched character and this book is more about the men that she is "hunting" and "fishing" than about her. ( )