Customer Reviews

The Boyfriend School (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Why is this book out of print, and so hard to find. I read it many years ago when I stumbled across it in a library in Vernon, B.C. I loved it so much, and recommended it to all my friends, but could never find it... anywhere. No other library seems to have heard of Sarah Bird. Well to all readers who like to have fun with characters and laugh out loud, go out of your way to find this one. It is delightful. A reporter is sent to cover a romance writers conference (porbably the worst assignment in the newsroom that day. No one in a newsroom has very high regards for these books or writers.) But little does our reporter know she is in for the ride of her life. What can fans do to get this book back into print??

I read this on recommendation from a reviewer of Olivia Goldsmith's Bad Boy, who claimed that Bad Boy was just a regurgitation of Sarah Bird's book. Now that I've read both, I must agree that The Boyfriend School is the superior book. I thought that the beginning was somewhat sluggish and Gretchen's "special friend" incredibly irritating (overblown and undergroomed). However, after the plot gained speed and the special friend faded out, I was drawn into Bird's quirky characters and Gretchen's angst about her true romantic nature. This is a really charming book that shouldn't be out of print when so many Bridget Jones copy-cats are littering the shelves. And coincidentally, I didn't think that Bad Boy shares much more than a plot device with The Boyfriend School.

I am not a person who usually rereads books, but I just read THE BOYFRIEND SCHOOL for the third time in ten years, and it's one of my absolute favorites. Funny and yet touching, as well. I'm so glad that this book was recommended to me years ago. What I'd like to know is, what happened to Sarah Bird? After 1993, I can't find any record of her having written anything.

One of my very favorite books. For years, it was out of print. I never could understand why. Recently I was delighted to see a new edition in a bookstore. A whole new group of readers can discover Sarah Bird's wonderful characters, snappy dialogue, humor, romance and original plot.

Her main character, Gretchen, works for a second-rate and declining publication as a writer\photographer. She's assigned to cover a convention of romance novelists. Initially very snobbish about this kind of writing, she's won over by the intelligence of the writers she meets. Some of them become her friends. One friend, Lizzie, is a particularly unforgettable character, an intellectual with college degrees in arcane academia from an intellectual family with a supersmart husband and brother, a take-charge manner, and bizarre child-raising ideas. She's also a major star in the romance novelist galaxy. Another, Juanita, is earthy, nosy and nurturing.

Gretchen's new friends encourage her to try to write a romance novel herself. We see her struggles with creating hero and heroine, plot devices and language, failing to "transcend the genre," and surviving on Cup-a-Noodles. Along the way, she copes with her philandering sometimes-boyfriend boss, dodges attempts by her new friends to match-make, and by her landlord to collect the rent, copes with writer's block, learns the conventions of the romance novel, has a storybook adventure, solves a mystery, has an exotic romance herself, and learns how to write a love scene that soars, and sells.

While her heroine has to learn to create within the limits of the romance novel format, Ms. Bird goes far beyond it. The Boyfriend School has intelligent and funny observations to make about writers and writing in general, and about the romance novel genre in particular, about being a very smart person in pretty dumb job, about being single with an on-again off-again boyfriend, about family, friendship, health and happiness, eccentric intellectuals, romance, and love. While on one level, it seems like the book is just a clever, good-natured, romantic romp, it's also about people and things not being what you expect, about discovering what really matters in life and other people, and about being surprised by ourselves and by life. It's done with such a light touch and great style that it may not occur to you that there were some serious issues involved until you're done.

A word about the book and the movie. I read the book first and then saw the movie "Don't Tell Her It's Me" starring Jamie Gertz, Steve Guttenberg, and Shelly Long. I was disappointed in the movie and thought they should have followed the book more closely. The book is told in the first person by the struggling writer, and the effect is critical to the main plot surprise. The movie is made from a completely different point of view, which appears in a diary late in the book. The movie not only loses the main plot twist, but, more importantly, all of Gretchen's wonderful thoughts and observations. And a visual medium can't match all the witty language in the book. Sometime after that, I read an interview with Ms. Bird where she said that she wrote the script for the movie first - basically the diary at the end of the book. Later she wrote a book around that plot device. Along the way she changed the point of view to a first person narrative with Gretchen as the main character. The change is magical. While the movie is standard romantic fare, the book is a treasure.

I've lent this book to several friends and had to fight to get it back. They were charmed. It's not only a delightful read; it's a delightful re-read.

My highest recommendation. Five stars can't do it justice. Don't miss it.

I also have read this book several times and absolutely love it. I know two romance authors who say it's their favorite romance. It's non-traditional and quirky. Sarah Bird has a unique style. I haven't seen anything new from her since 1993, and I wish she'd have something new out soon.

I read this book several years ago when a bookstore owner in Albuquerque NM suggested it to me. It's one of my favorite stories...I just love the characters and the humor. Shelly Long and Jamie Gertz starred in an HBO movies based on the novel, but it just doesn't measure up to the book. I'd love to read it again, but, unfortunately, I lent my copy to someone who never returned it. If you come across a copy, enjoy it!

Okay, maybe the second half, after she discovered Rye, wasn't my favorite part. I really liked the beginning, when she's describing life at her magazine and at home, LOVED the Luvboree, Juanita, Carrie, Lizzie, and Andrea. Enjoyed excerpts from Gretchens book and from others. What I didn't like about the part with Rye was that it seemed like she didn't spend as much time with Juanita and Lizzy, and when the three of them were together was the funniest part in the whole book. However, the climax is interesting and unexpected, and I loved all the characters, the humor, and the setting. God, if I met someone like Rye I wouldn't care how many Trouts I had to go through to get to to him. Gus Kubiak is sweet. I know some people think that Gretchen is shallow about him, but you have to think, the author was trying to be realistic. Not a lot of women would be phycologically capable of looking past that face and that much earnestness(desperation).

I, too, first read this as an excerpt in Cosmopolitan years ago, and rushed right out to find it - it has become my favorite "light reading" book of all time and I have read it so often that I've memorized much of it. I recommend it for any woman who is or ever was a mid-twenty-something single, because it perfectly captures the essence of life in that phase - frustrated with men and career but unwilling to give up on one's dreams of a real job, a real guy, and a real life. I still laugh out loud when I read it and I still carry a lot of Gretchen inside me. How could Sarah Bird know me so darn well?! A real "girlfriend" book. Too bad Oprah wasn't doing her book club when this came out.

I read this book years ago and still remember it. Bird writes discriptions of urban Texas . . . especially Texas summer nights. . . that are so true to life. I live in Texas and have been on the back of a motorcycle riding through a late night urban landscape (Dallas to be precise) when the sprinklers come on. Bird got the feel of the scene exactly right. The characters of her story are just as authentic aand the story is FUN. Like I said I read this one years ago and still remember it. I'm planning on rereading it soon - like tomorrow!

Not knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Sarah Bird had managed to capture the essence of what it's like to be a single female who is happy to be alone but secretly wishes for gut-wrenching passion and romance. From the opening line, I was completely amused. You've got to love a book that combines a romance writers' convention, a philandering guy named "the Trout" and a left-leaning independent newspaper all in the same paragraph. This book is a must-read for any female who has given up on the male species