Customer Reviews

Dateland

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Nothing short of a revolution, Parello's authorial voice disassembles the spurious accusations of humorlessness traditionally assigned to lesbians as well as the earnest attempts to define and enclose an authentic lesbian literature. Her protagonist and the band of merry women who surround her, throw light instead on the delightfully intricate fluctuations and revelations of neuroticism that is the hallmark of any great American modernist novel. Smart, quirky, and eminently adept at pacing and flow, Parello's talent has produced a debut work that is a tremendously pleasurable read. It will lift the spirit of any lesbian who understands herself as irreducible to her sexual orientation. Dateland portends great things to come from this unapologetically frank and lovingly bemused observer of life's perils and pleasures.

This is one of my favorite books in the last year. I highly recommend it to all my friends. The story is entertaining and original. The characters are well developed. There isn't one thing about this novel that I didn't like. The dialogue is fabulous and funny.

The story is told by Julia who is surrounded by people who are just a tad bit off kilter. One of the things I liked the most was that under all the silliness and outrageous behavior you can feel the love that friends and family have for each other.

Every page is filled with some silliness or biting insight. Julia and her friends Anne and Tricia (who is also Julia's law partner). Julie and her (hysterically funny) mother and (stereotypical) brother. Julia and her ex-Jean (LOL storyline there) and Julia with new love interest Claire.

Wonderful ending.

This is a Keeper!

I LOVED this book. It's laugh-out-loud funny. The characters spring to life and the plot is compelling. Once I started it I couldn't put it down.

This is a wonderful read and I can't tout it enough. I loved it. I also recommend Michele Cozzens'A Line Between Friends

Dateland is a great read -- perceptive and funny. Parello offers an insightful view of the intimacies of courting and relationships. She has a great eye for the small ways we show our love and affection and she has a wicked sense of humor.

Parello's got the Anita Loos gift for writing terrific characters into a sharp, funny story. If you're looking for lesbian fiction that doesn't feature impossibly good-looking detectives, oddly named characters or tortured love stories you should be reading this book.

Mary Dugger, author The History of Lesbian Hair

Whew!! Finally a lesbian writer that doesn't bore, or demand a book group to explain her meaning. A wonderful romp that begs a follow up...

please write about more adventures in dateland....

This was the funniest book I have read in a long time. If you what a good laugh purchase it.

This book is a quick jaunt through some of the more complicated relationships we all find ourselves in at one time or another. Ms. Parello writes with such a humorous perspective that I would wager she is one those people that find themselves laughing out loud, alone in the shower.

Jennifer Parello, Dateland (McKenna Publishing Group, 2007)

Dateland is a fun little book, a beach read that refuses to stop gushing existential angst just because you're sitting there reading it with sand in your shorts. The trials and tribulations of the dating world are examined (and often thoroughly skewered), but what really caught my attention here are the characters-- while obvious exaggerations (at least, I hope they're exaggerations), there are sharp edges on these folks that, when I scrape up against them, feel all too real. Lest you more, for lack of a better term, "conservative" readers squirm at the subject matter, let's face it: we've all been there. Who hasn't been dumped? (And can I be you?) Who hasn't found him- or herself footloose, fancy free, and absolutely terrified at the prospect? Who doesn't have a chronically philandering best friend? (Okay, there may be more of us who can't identify with that one...) And the basic ludicrousness of the bar scene? I don't care if you were a Studio 54 junkie in the seventies or frequent the world's worst pestholes, where you can get wasted for a buck and leave with a pocketful of silver, you will know a lot of the people you will meet between these covers.

It has some problems, most of them having to do with pacing, but overall it's a good, solid read, well worth checking out. ***