Anonymous wrote:I LOVE Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s journalism, but I hated this book. I agree that the main character was boring and unsympathetic and the whole thing was a nothingburger.

Knowing TBA’s sensibility from reading a lot of her other work, I THINK what she was going for here was a mild satire about the absurdity of feeling miserable and inadequate while being a classically successful yuppie. I think it was supposed to be a Portnoy’s Complaint for the Instagram era. Unfortunately, she just didn’t pull it off. She’s usually extremely witty and has a sharp eye; I don’t know what happened here.

Same.

I couldn’t finish it. I love the author’s writing. Her profiles are fantastic. But I found Toby incredibly offputting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved it. The point is that Libby can’t tell her story, orRachel’s, without first centering it around a man.

Exactly. When everything shifted and that became clear, I suddenly saw the Toby BS through a different lens. It was a long way to go to get there, but for me, the payoff was definitely worth it, and I enjoyed the book much more.

The author is a smart, savvy woman. I don’t think she intended for the characters to be “relatable” in their specifics. But the book as a whole was constructed as commentary on the sad truth that women's stories often need to be folded into men’s stories in order to be told - especially if an author wants to be taken swriosly as literary fiction (red by men and women, alike) rather than relegated to “chick lit” (dismissed by men and read only by women.)

Yup, this is it. I didn’t really enjoy it, but after I finished I appreciated what she was doing. I also resented having to read so much about Toby, from Toby’s perspective, to get to the payoff, even if that was the point. I’ve never recommended it to another reader.

That resentment is definitely intended! She’s trying to raise your frustration to a boiling point before giving you the payoff - mimicking the frustration that working moms feel in the real world with everything stacked against them.

Agree that many of the characters were like able. Thought it was pretty amusing the turn in Toby’s life regarding his attractiveness to women at the time f the divorce proceedings. Was taken by the description of the people and friends at different times of life with Toby, Libby, and Seth. Thought the most telling was how Toby and Rachel really didn’t know one another, they had gotten so caught up in the little things n life that their relationship did not grow as they were marrying and they did not understand what was going on with their spouse. They also did not take responsibility for how they could have done things differently so they maintained their relationship. Both were at fault, but they could not see that. Always a good reminder and what I took away from the book.

Read it a while ago. Found all the characters highly unlikable, the husband and the wife. The husband is supposed to be unlikeable but not be able to see it, the wife’s perspective is supposed to enlighten the reader that the husband sucks. However, I also thought the wife sucked. The whole book was rather unpleasant. It had the vibe of a DCUM thread in the relationship section where the women are complaining about the men, except not as vivid, realistic or entertaining

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I loved it. The point is that Libby can’t tell her story, orRachel’s, without first centering it around a man.

Exactly. When everything shifted and that became clear, I suddenly saw the Toby BS through a different lens. It was a long way to go to get there, but for me, the payoff was definitely worth it, and I enjoyed the book much more.

The author is a smart, savvy woman. I don’t think she intended for the characters to be “relatable” in their specifics. But the book as a whole was constructed as commentary on the sad truth that women's stories often need to be folded into men’s stories in order to be told - especially if an author wants to be taken swriosly as literary fiction (red by men and women, alike) rather than relegated to “chick lit” (dismissed by men and read only by women.)

Yup, this is it. I didn’t really enjoy it, but after I finished I appreciated what she was doing. I also resented having to read so much about Toby, from Toby’s perspective, to get to the payoff, even if that was the point. I’ve never recommended it to another reader.

I loved the book! I thought it was witty, funny, clever. The characters’ lives don’t really resemble mine, but I loved how the book painted a portrait of a specific time and place.

I can see how some people may find the book depressing, but I was hopeful the characters could work their way out of their ruts and this moment just represented a rough patch in their lives. I felt like the book did a good job of capturing the messiness of life and I was ok with that.

Anonymous wrote:I loved it. The point is that Libby can’t tell her story, orRachel’s, without first centering it around a man.

Exactly. When everything shifted and that became clear, I suddenly saw the Toby BS through a different lens. It was a long way to go to get there, but for me, the payoff was definitely worth it, and I enjoyed the book much more.

The author is a smart, savvy woman. I don’t think she intended for the characters to be “relatable” in their specifics. But the book as a whole was constructed as commentary on the sad truth that women's stories often need to be folded into men’s stories in order to be told - especially if an author wants to be taken swriosly as literary fiction (red by men and women, alike) rather than relegated to “chick lit” (dismissed by men and read only by women.)

I didn’t finish it. Didn’t like it at all.

Anonymous wrote:The author, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, worked in the NYC publishing industry for years and is well known there. Thus the book contract, the rave reviews when it came out, and the great momentum out of the gate.

I agree that this was very much a publishing industry circle jerk event. She’s capable of transcending that milieu, but I guess she got lost in it.

I LOVE Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s journalism, but I hated this book. I agree that the main character was boring and unsympathetic and the whole thing was a nothingburger.

Knowing TBA’s sensibility from reading a lot of her other work, I THINK what she was going for here was a mild satire about the absurdity of feeling miserable and inadequate while being a classically successful yuppie. I think it was supposed to be a Portnoy’s Complaint for the Instagram era. Unfortunately, she just didn’t pull it off. She’s usually extremely witty and has a sharp eye; I don’t know what happened here.

The author, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, worked in the NYC publishing industry for years and is well known there. Thus the book contract, the rave reviews when it came out, and the great momentum out of the gate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hated it, couldn’t finish.

Same here. I was psyched for this book because I'd seen such rave reviews and I'd read a few magazine pieces by the author. Then I started reading and genuinely couldn't understand what all the hype was about.

Me too - exactly the same.

I loved it. The point is that Libby can’t tell her story, orRachel’s, without first centering it around a man.

I loved the book. Watching the tv series now.

I found it very funny and relatable. More so the narrator's struggles between being home and work. Also, I had really tight group of college friends and those parts took me back. It's been a while since I have read it, though.