Customer Reviews

Dish It Up, Baby

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This impressive debut novel boasts a compelling protagonist, a compelling story arc, and an elegantly spare writing style that seems to have flowed directly from the author's heart to her pen. Helms dives fearlessly into reservoirs of freedom, sorrow, anger, love, and hope. It is a pleasure to witness the heroine's discovery of herself and the world she moves through. My only regret is the book's slimness; I wished to spend more time with the character. I look forward to Ms. Helms next effort.

I'm pretty sure that other reviewer didn't read the book as it wasn't released as of the date the review was written. Also, if he or she had actually read the book, he or she would know that a great deal happens. Unless you count escaping an abusive marriage as nothing happening...which this person may.

Lifetime makes women's lives all seem like the only part that matters is escaping those marriages. No one ever seems to care what happens once you leave, how the woman cowering in the corner of the kitchen can escape the physical danger and still have to work through the emotional process of leaving. And how at the end of that journey, there can be love, friendship, and fulfillment beyond what she could have imagined while married.

In Helms' story, that journey is invigorating. At the same time it manages to tell the tale of leaving and rebirth, it also captures a time and place in New York City prior to 9/11 that seems lost today. I didn't want to get off the subway once I got into it - and that's saying a lot since I hate the subway.

This book is a great read - everything that women's fiction should be. It's a lighthearted story about a young woman who grew up at the lower end of the socio-economic scale in Kentucky and is able to achieve her dreams. If you are a twenty-something woman, if you are from Kentucky, WVa or similar, if you are new to the corporate world or NYC, if you are looking for love in all the wrong places, you will relate to and really enjoy the protagonist here. Enjoy.

This book is amazing. The reviewer above must have read something different since he gave it zero stars and reviewed it before it was actually released (2004). An unbelievably poignant read with a humorous twist - Helms dishes up a dose of real life that doesn't let you put the book down. If I only get to read one book this year, I'm glad this was the one! Oprah - you should be recommending this one!!!

Dish it up, baby is a great read... It is a page turner, I could not put this book down. I could relate to alot of what the main character was going through. It felt like I was at times in the heart of New York City with the characters. Author deals with a tough subject with out giving the reader a lecture, but a realistic portrait of someone's life with all the up's and downs.

Dish It Up Baby is stylish, cotton-candy pink, big lipstick kiss schmaltz -- with a brain.

It's a coming-of-age story, but it's not about adolescence. I'm kind of tired of books about adolescence. It's nice to read about a woman in her 20s, out of college, having been married, working, and coming to terms with herself and the world.

This is fiction inspired by a sharp observant mind and spoken from a deep heart. Terrible things happen to the heroine. You know she will survive because she's writing the book, but you don't know how.

The story of how she makes it will keep you going from Manhattan to Brooklyn, from the World Trade Centers to the corner drugstore. Details of life in the city are finely drawn. Style is choppy on purpose, staccato like urban movement.

At the end of this book you will say, "Yes, I can see how that happened." And you will want to read more books by this author.

Clever, insightful, refreshing writing style brings the protagonist of this tale to life. Knowlegeable account of escape from an abusive relationship, this book brings to life the heroine's journey from abuse to loneliness and despair to self awareness and love. Don't miss this one!

I think the author's choice to call her book a novel instead of a memoir colored my expectations as I read. The book's main strength is the unique voice of the protagonist, followed closely by its beautiful and almost tangible love and appreciation for New York. Its biggest weakness, on the other hand, is the lack of attention paid to fleshing out secondary characters. While the minor, tertiary characters are often deftly characterized, the people important to the protagonist come off as oddly flat or blank. While this would be slightly more understandable in the case of a memoir (where the protagonist takes precedence over all), the lack of convincing characterization made it harder to empathize with the protagonist's obvious emotional attachment to the people in her life. The book also has a tendency to tell rather than show, and I found myself wanting more examples and deeper situational examinations of (for example) the dichotomies that the protagonist embodies and what caused them/their history. The author has a real knack for small, vivid vignettes, but when taken in the context of a whole novel it felt like there was more skeleton showing than those bits of flesh. Ultimately, I hope to read more from this author, as her writing voice is quite good.

The unnamed narrator in this novel begins her tale with an escape from her abusive marriage. The rage of her husband has gradually escalated over the years, and "four days after the fist and the blood," she flees to Brooklyn. Fortunately she has a decent job which allows her to move into a small place of her own, and she begins the process of trying to come to terms with her past, deal with the issues of the present, and forge a future.

The early chapters of the book are gripping, and the descriptions of her separation, grief, and adjustment are, at times, intense. For the first time in ages, she is alone, and the process of reconciling herself to that will be familiar to anyone going through a breakup. She wants to know if she can make it on her own. She needs to know why her husband did what he did to her. She wonders if she is gay. "I had spent 27 years making sure everything fit into a nice little suburban box. I was finding it hard that I didn't fit into the box so easily any more. I kept looking for a "for sure" test. You know, spin around three times, clap your hands and if you start humming the Indigo Girls, then proof positive. Hand that girl a rainbow sticker and tell her to get her hair cut already" (p. 28).

The first signs of a sense of humor emerge early on. We follow the narrator along through random days at work, her encounters with oddball people, and into episodic scenes where she reflects on and attempts to make a new life for herself. At times, the story is a bit rambling and picaresque. The occasional bit of humor keeps the narrative rolling. For instance, her cat, Maggie, is actually male. "Friends told me I was the only person they knew with a Jewish transgender cat." Another instance: she puts a personals ad in Match.com. "I had no idea what that meant or what it was I thought I'd find there. I just generally believed in the power of the Internet to fix my life" (p. 70). The sardonic wit is welcome, especially since it's often unexpected.

But in between the funny observations and the grief-struck memories, the structure of the novel doesn't quite hold. The book reads a great deal more like an autobiography or memoir, so it's curious that the author chose to specifically label it "A Novel," as though otherwise the reader wouldn't know. As the unnamed narrator moves forward in her healing process and begins dating women and exploring her sexual orientation, the narrative punch decreases. Some of that is because we never really get to know anyone she encounters, and we never even know her name. People come and go, but there's little solidity to hang on to...still, we want good things for the narrator. By the end of the book, she's had an interesting journey, sometimes rambling, sometimes odd, but interesting all the same. ~Lori L. Lake, author of Stepping Out, Different Dress, Gun Shy, Under The Gun, and Ricochet In Time, and reviewer for Midwest Book Review, Golden Crown Literary Society's The Crown, The Independent Gay Writer, The Gay Read, and Just About Write.

There's strength in power and power in words! Awesome work that is truly worth reading. She explains her life with candor and wit and she takes us along for the ride. Read, read, read.