Customer Reviews

A Certain Age: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I must start by saying that I totally enjoyed this book. I thought the yuppie label thing was more relevant to the story and characters than that in 'American psycho'. Florence's family back ground (unresolved family issues- probably) coupled with her level of energy, good looks and life in a big city were believable, as was her downward spiral at the end of the book. I didn't feel she was a particularly bad or unusual person just someone who continued to do early twenties stuff in her early thirties. Believe me there are 'groups' of people who live like that in the big city. Janowitz is a great writer and she tackles everything she does with an honesty, freshness and wit that make her one of my personal favourites.

Altogether, this was a fun, zippy read. Florence was so pathetic, so obnoxious and so utterly resolute in her determination to destroy herself that I found my self cringing, then gingerly turning the page to see what new catastrophe awaited her. Frank Gehry couldn't have conceived a more spectacular downfall than Florence designs for herself. And, as in Gehry's buildings, you wonder how Florence manages to stay upright. Somewhere, there must be a strong core.

I felt that Janowitz's writing sometimes got in the way of her character. The narrator was clearly more intellectual than Florence, and occasionally put thoughts in her head that seemed WAY over it.

Tiny details are off here and there. For example, no self-respecting Italian (of the European variety) butters his bread at any meal other than breakfast.

And, although she obsesses over her character's clothes and shoes, Janowitz fails to mention Florence's handbags. In Florence's narrow little world, this detail would make or break her look.

I have found reading the reviews here almost as fun as reading the book! There is a clear division between New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers. Many "nons" are bursting at the seams with indignation and contempt for Florence. The book certainly seems to touch a nerve with them.

I think that being a New Yorker does give you an insight into this very particular "type." Manhattan is such a small place that any ambitious person will come across a character like Florence sooner or later.

I find myself wondering how 9/11 would have affected Florence's myopic view of herself and the world.

As for comparisons to The House of Mirth, frankly, I found Lily Bart just as shallow and obnoxious. She did, however, have far fewer choices than Flo. Unlike Wharton, Janowitz can't possible expect us to believe that Flo is simply a victim of her times.

Could it be that Florence is the secret monster that however deeply buried, lurks in many of us women? Perhaps that's what upsets us so about her.

This book is an outrageously funny satirical commentary on single life in Manhattan. Janowitz is superb at characterizations, and observations. Brilliant, insightful and amusing.... I couldn't put this book down, but to be clear, it's not for everyone: 'irony is wasted on the stupid.'

Why don't people like this book? It's well-crafted, peppered with hilarious characters, a real tragicomedy...Janowitz has such an endearing way of putting things, even horrible things. Maybe some readers have had their delicate sensibilities threatened (what are these people reading? Danielle Steel?). Seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it novel, and i definitely LOVED it.

The ground covered in "A Certain Age" has been covered before (and better) by Jay McInerney's "Story of My Life" and Edith Wharton's classic "House of Mirth."

The story here is that of Florence Collins, a woman in her early 30s whose quest it is to find and marry a wealthy man, and she is past her "prime" and needs to settle down quickly before her looks and money run out (this was also the quest of Lily Bart in "Mirth"). The novel details her mistakes along the way--sleeping with husbands, irritating the few friends that she has, spending money way beyond her budget, sleeping with men she barely knows, and getting into drugs.

This novel wore me out, and the comparisons to "Story of My Life" and "House of Mirth" seemed plain as day. Unlike "Mirth", however, which is set in the early 1900s, Florence HAS options. When she is fired from her job, she ups the ante in her search for a husband but can barely be bothered to try to find another job.

This is, unfortunately, what makes Florence so unsympathetic as a character. WHile she is taken advantage of at certain points throughout the novel, I never felt that she was taking charge of her own destiny. We never really get inside her head or heart. Instead, we remain on the outside looking at this shallow, confused and essentially self-destructive woman without really getting into her pain or loneliness.

Certainly there still are women who long to find a wealthy husband, and whose quest it is to do so. But they are just as certainly rarer than when Wharton wrote "Mirth", and I found Florence an insufferable character for most of the time that I was reading this.

Florence's downfall seems inevitable, just as the heroines' were in "Story of My Life" and "Mirth". However, the ending rang much truer than if Janowitz had tacked on an artificially happy ending.

I recommend this book for, if nothing else, spotting the parallels to those other two novels. If you're not interested in comparative lit, though, I would give this a pass. Florence isn't interesting or sympathetic enough as a character to sustain anyone else's attention.

I find it hard to believe that anyone would not love this book. I could not put it down and have passed it on to all my friends who equally love the book. The characters are a true extreme example of women living in the city in their thirties. I recommend this book highly!

I finished this novel recently and went into amazon to check out the impressions of other readers. I was beyond surprised to see a 1 star review written by someone that doesn't seem to have even read the entire book and clearly doesn't like Janowitz at all. I loved the book, anyone who has ever spent any time in Manhattan will immediately recognize the characters that populate this well written novel. The dialogue and character descriptions are absolutely dead-on. Anyone who doesn't mind main characters that are not particularly likeable should give this book a try.

I think the first thing the reader should do when approaching a Tama Janowitz novel is to detach yourself from the protagonist. You won't identify with her. She won't gratify you with a glorious Jane Austen-like triumph. But she's going to show you a wacky, twisted good time! Approach Florence's mishaps in Manhattan as a sort of postmodern anti-Cathy cartoon. Don't make yourself one with her; just observe her from the safety of your own comparatively sane existence and enjoy the socialite's-eye-view of a Manhattan that most of us "shabby 30-year-olds in thrift store finds" have only glimpsed from the outside.

I enjoyed this book immensely - smirking at the dead-on wit, covering my eyes at the "scary" parts, and just lapping up the shiny superficiality of Florence's world. I even caught myself rooting for Florence sometimes...although she immediately made me sorry by following each insight or moment of humanity with something outstandingly cringe-worthy. It's a fun read, not meant to be taken too seriously.

This book is very entertaining and needs to be taken for what it, is a fictional story.

A Certain Age is a novel that fits that famous line: "The book that fulfills the author's early promise." Tama Janowitz has, to state it even more simply, written her most accomplished work to date.

Her story of a young professional woman's spiral down on the outskirts of Manhattan's high society is as funny as her previous work, yet it contains a mature tone that questions the artificial, materialistic values her main character worships. A tragic comedy of manners and mishaps, A Certain Age is also a social critique as spot on and effective as Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho and Jay McInerney's Brightness Falls.

Ms. Janowitz continues to have great comic timing in humorous situations set at parties, shops, and auction houses. This novel also benefits from total control from start to finish. A Certain Age is a novel as polished as a gem from Tiffany & Co.