The Broke Diaries: The Completely True and Hilarious Misadventures of a Good Girl Gone Broke [Paperback]

Angela Nissel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2001

“People always say I’m going to look back on these days and laugh — why put it off?”

When Angela Nissel found herself struggling financially while in college, instead of sulking, she decided to entertain herself by creating an online journal that chronicled her day-to-day trials and tribulations. Written with humor and intelligence, her “Broke Diary” quickly found an audience as people wrote to Angela to empathize with, console, and laugh with her about her experiences and even share their own. The Broke Diaries is the first complete compilation of her experiences, written in a voice that is funny, unique, and dead-on.

On buying ramen noodles: I am sooooooo embarassed. I only have 33 cents. I (please don’t laugh) put the money on the counter and quickly attempt to dash out with my Chicken Flavored Salt Noodles. The guy calls me back! I look up instinctively, I should have run . . . Why didn’t I run???!! He tells me the noodles are 35 cents. I try to apologize sincerely. I thought the sign said 33 cents yesterday, so that’s all I brought with me. Could he wait while I ran home and get the 2 cents? I show him my student I.D. to let him know I am not a thief. He shakes his head and motions either for me to get the hell out of his store and never come back again or get the money as do come back. I don’t know. He said something like “Nyeh” and swiped his hand in my direction.
I can’t translate hand motions well.
The noodles: tasty!!!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The Internet has been around long enough as a venue for works like the diary presented here, which debuted online, for such works to have lost some of their mystique. Still, Nissel deserves her moment in the sun. As a struggling college student at the University of Pennsylvania, she decided that to keep her mind off her empty stomach, she would keep a journal of her days and post it on the Net. The result is a series of biting, funny entries about the evil atmosphere of check-cashing offices, the horror of being two cents short for the grocery bill and the joys of making friends who buy dinner. Her wry thoughts about being flat broke will appeal to readers who enjoyed Bridget Jones's exploits and similarly sparky works. Nissel is no fictional Bridget, however, obsessing about weight and cigarettes. She's a city girl who knows the exact price of ramen noodles and the pain of counting pennies. Although she occasionally recycles material, she rants with aplomb, using colorful anecdotes (her elderly landlord comes for the rent and ends up falling asleep on the couch) to pull the reader further into her impoverished reality. She doesn't delve into the actual fear and pain associated with poverty, but views her time of hunger with amusement, like a financial misadventure that she always knew would end. Charming and sharp, Nissel's diary will be relished by anyone who's ever been a student and remembers those ramen noodles. (Apr.)Forecast: Already a palpable presence on okayplayer.com, a hip-hop Web site she cofounded that receives 500,000 visitors a day, Nissel has a solid base constituency. With a blurb from Chris Rock, a five-city author tour, stickering campaigns in several key cities and a low cover price, this paperback original is poised for success.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Review

"...the deft way Nissel transforms the ordeals of poverty into funny, reassuring anecdotes makes it an almost enviable condition." -- Mademoiselle Magazine, April 2001

"Her searing laugh-out-loud commentary makes this a must have-if you're broke yourself, get it from the library." -- Honey Magazine, April 2001

"What makes Nissel's book shine is her unsentimental prose and wicked sense of humor." -- USA Today, April 12, 2001

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1 edition (April 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679783571
• ISBN-13: 978-0679783572
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.5 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #173,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny, clever, not-to-be-missed saga of brokeness..., February 21, 2002

By 

E. M. Carey "LGW" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Broke Diaries: The Completely True and Hilarious Misadventures of a Good Girl Gone Broke (Paperback)

As a University of Pennsylvania senior, Angela Nissel is totally and utterly broke - not the 'oh, I'm broke because I only have $100 in the bank but I can pay all my bills' broke but really broke. Her 'diary' recounts her misadventures trying to make it through the year without starving or getting evicted. Her cleverness, sense of humour and pretty bizarre experience make 'The Broke Diaries' an incredibly entertaining read, one to be savored and certainly not to be missed.

The book is structured as an actual diary, with entries on various days describing Angela's latest battle to eat/ survive/ pay her bills/ get textbooks and so forth. A lot of what she endures will be familiar to many college students and graduates, but a lot of it is simply amazing, both in terms of what Angela has to go through and some of the very strange people she encounters. Even as she struggles to get by, Angela maintains her wicked sense of humor, and that comes through in all of her 'entries,' as do her keen perceptions about poverty, human nature, and so forth. Some of what happens to her seems unbelievable except in the context of everything else that she's enduring - even the pretty crazy stuff seems normal in her world and in her chatty, informal, funny narrative voice.

I'm very glad that Angela survived her senior year and that she is no longer broke, as much as I did enjoy her tales of woe. 'The Broke Diaries' would make rewarding, entertaining, fun and funny reading for almost anybody. Just don't forget to pay attention to some of her astute perceptions about poverty.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Aria to Brokeness, May 9, 2001

By 

Reine des Coeurs "reine_des_coeurs" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Broke Diaries: The Completely True and Hilarious Misadventures of a Good Girl Gone Broke (Paperback)

After perusing the aisles at Borders for hours (hey, I was broke why else would I look but not buy), I came upon this book and the title grabbed me by the collar and made me open it up. After reading several pages and finding that I couldn't stop, my thriftiness gave me permission to buy this book, thereby enhancing my own *personal brokeness*.

Bravo Angela for writing such an incredibly realistic book for those of us who have lived off Ramen noodles, flirting with the utility guys and enjoying $5 cabaret nights (including meal and transportation)!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An eye opener, March 26, 2006

By 

Meesha "I'm A Lonely Angel Stuck On The Slow ... (South Queensferry, Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Broke Diaries: The Completely True and Hilarious Misadventures of a Good Girl Gone Broke (Paperback)

I bought this book purely because of the cover, and found it an absolutely terrific read. For anyone who's ever been out of a job, simply spent too much money, this book is the one for you. (Go sit in the bookshop & read it that way!)

There's quite a few things in this book that are familiar to me, and to many other readers too. Being 2 cents short when you're buying something was the main thing, oh my god, that happens to me so often! (Which is why I use my card so often.) There's so much other enlightening moments in this, being blacklisted, having people look over your shoulder when you're writing, going on dates just so you can eat...

Everyone should read this book. Without a doubt.