Customer Reviews

Dumping Billy

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I have read and thoroughly enjoyed the following novels by Olivia
Goldsmith:

The First Wives Club
Flavor of the Month
The Bestseller
Fashionably Late
Marrying Mom
Switcheroo
Young Wives
Bad Boys (although a lot of you disliked it, I actually enjoyed it)
Pen Pals

and have concluded, in my opinion, based on Ms. Goldsmith's untimely death, Dumping Bill was not Olivia Goldsmith's finished product. The plot may have been Olivia's but this story does not fit the in depth characterizations of her previous works.

Although I would not recommend passing on "Dumping Billy", as I found it interesting that a lot of us still mistake good looks with stupidity, cockiness or something worse. There are times when you have to look under the surface of an individual or a situation to perhaps find something you might have otherwised missed, like a good person who assumes an undeserved title without actually knowing it exists. The lesson I learned here was "you can't judge a good book by its cover".

Just beware this novel does not compare to the wonderful novels Olivia Goldsmith has defined throughout the years and you will come away asking the same question I did "Who Really Wrote this Novel"?

I have read all of Olivia Goldsmith's books, and I found this one to be among the worst. It seems like she wrote it in a matter of days- if she wrote it at all! It's silly, predictable, and the characters aren't much fun at all. They lack the depth and lovable flaws that attract us to her characters in most of her books. And while novels aren't supposed to be realistic, this one is so far-fetched it is irritating. "Bad Boy" was unlike many of her books because it did not have a large ensemble cast like "Billy," but at least that was funny and a decent read. This seems like it was written to appeal to teen girls.

Missing from this book are Goldsmith's sharp wit, great character development and fun plot twists. It's a good thing that this author will be remembered for her works like "The First Wives' Club" and "Flavor of the Month" and not for poor efforts such as this. If you're new to Olivia, leave this one on the shelf and pick up ANY of the others she wrote.

Dumping Billy is the last book by Olivia Goldsmith. I doubt it represents how she would have liked to be remembered.

Kate has a serious superiority complex-
Her old friends from Brooklyn just do not get her anymore, now that she is a "Doctor" (school psych.) in Manhattan.
Of one friend: "Bina definitely had an irony deficiency." To another: "You've had a haircut? Nope, just had my ears lowered." Those New Yorkers and their witty repartee! Who could expect the poor folks in Brooklyn to keep up with snappy patter like that?

Kate must be referred to as the protagonist, as she is certainly the central character, but a long way from a heroine. (Except, perhaps, her own.) She is elitist, smug, and insufferable:
"Her apartment was in Chelsea, but Kate could pass for a downtown hipster."
"she was grateful for all she herself had learned about style from Brice, college, Manhattan boutiques and her current New York friends."
"But now that she had a circle of intellectual, cosmopolitan pals, she could give up the frustration over Bina's provincial interests and conversation and simply love her good heart."

I don't know about you, but I HATE this woman!

I kept waiting for Kate to come to the realization that she was narrow minded and small- I thought the point of the book must be her transformation. Alas, no. Although she doesn't seem bright enough to have completed the SAT (let alone a doctorate) and she is a wretched specimen of a human being, she is rewarded. I expect this from life, but pop novels usually follow more logical standards of good and evil.

The sophomoric dialogue is peppered with witty retorts like "Uh, duh!" and other lines I'm loathe to repeat, but in the interest of saving others the afternoon of pain I just experienced, I'll elaborate:
Kate leaves her (homosexual) friends:
'Say goodnight, Gracie.' 'Goodnight, Gracie,' Elliot and Brice chorused."
(Gay men are so clever.)

Kate refers to her Brooklyn girlfriends as her crew and her posse. Do thirty-one year old professional women in Manhattan do this?

"If she but knew it, she easily looked the most elegant woman in the room." (Oh god. I felt like I was reading a Babysitters Club book.) And is the line a joke? Every page previous to this seemed to exist only to reinforce how wonderful Kate thinks she is!

Billy says: "And I can date anyone I want!"
Our protagonist responds: "Not anyone. You can't date me! You're just a Mick who never even got out of Brooklyn. The trick with you is you are slightly better looking on the outside than you are on the inside, and the inner and the outer you are in constant conflict. That's why you don't know you're a loser."
This is the conversation of a Psychologist?

Again with Billy, Kate (the Doctor) tells him that he has a repetition compulsion. He references the DSM IV, and mentions the fact that Freud isn't terribly popular these days, then he says "And I don't have a petition.. whatever."
It certainly seems logical to ME that a man who quotes Freud and the DSM IV would have problems with a big word like repetition.

As others have suggested, I doubt this book was written by Goldsmith. Her books weren't literature, but they were well crafted and amusing.
This book was probably written after Goldsmith's death, (maybe based on an idea she was working on) by a white professional heterosexual male, most likely in his twenties.

A terrible waste of trees...

I was sorry to hear of Olivia Goldsmith's death, but nowhere as sorry as I was to have plodded through Dumping Billy. As another poster noted, it does seem as though it was written by someone else. I have loved all Ms. Goldsmith's books---it is just too much of a coincidence that she died, and shortly afterwood this inane book comes out. There is no way she wrote this silly read. It starts off ok--even pretty funny--particularly when we're with Elliott & Co. The beginning of the book certainly belongs to Ms. Goldsmith--her style shines through. Then suddenly all the snappy talk comes to a screeching halt and what could have been one of her best crashes down on us. Since when does our author take us into ice cream shops and have the two main characters cutely get a situation of little kids screaming for treats under control? I had to check my book to be sure it wasn't recommended for twelve year olds. Ms.Goldsmith surely would have gagged (as did I)at this nonsense! Another turn-off was the obnoxious personality of Kate. How she had any friends at all was beyond me.That was another tipoff that it was written by someone else---in her other books,we almost always could relate to the main character, or at least like her. What a shame to have lost a great writer----she must be spinning to know that her name was on this eighth-grade goofiness.

I picked up this book to have a light, entertaining read. Unfortunately, there was no entertainment involved. Like many of the other reviewers, I hated Kate. I was not really attached to any of the characters, but I found Kate really detestable. I thought she was snobby. I appreciated that she had a semi-rough childhood and wanted something better for herself as an adult. Then when she finally got it, she really seemed to be arrogant and forget those who stood by her side while she was growing up. I also was not crazy about Billy. I thought he had no depth. I felt never felt like he was more than a pretty face, even after you found out his background and true feelings. I guess after writing all this, I mostly want to say, you should pass on this book!

I can't say I LOVED this book, but it wasn't as bad as some reviewers claimed it to be. All of the Brooklyn girls worked on my nerves a bit, but i did enjoy Kate and Billy and Elliot and Brice.

This is a fun and easy read. While I agree that I could have heard less about Kate's internal battles, they were easy to get through. I found the book fun and upbeat. I enjoyed spending time someplace else. The ending was happy...and why can't we all have a little more happiness?

Kate Jameson had a difficult childhood. Her mother died when she was young, leaving her in the care of an alcoholic father. Kate was taken in by the Horowitz family, including big-hearted, no-nonsense Mrs. Horowitz, a surrogate mother figure, and Bina, Kate's best friend. The Horowitzes and Kate's other friends, dubbed the Bitches of Bushwick, all live on the wrong side of the river for Kate, however, and embody everything about Brooklyn that she strove to leave behind. Kate made a new life for herself as a psychologist for an exclusive private school in Manhattan, developing a veneer of sophistication and a new group of polished, educated friends. From her urbane boyfriend to her new best friends, a gay couple, Kate has everything she ever wanted except marriage. She has even learned how to balance her two worlds without ever having them collide.

Then, one night, Bina shows up brokenhearted because the man she thought would propose told her he wanted space instead, and Kate's two lives begin to merge. Her gay friends, Elliott and Brice, begin showing up for baby showers and weddings in Brooklyn, and that's when they hatch their plan to bring Bina's boyfriend back to her. They want her to date Dumping Billy, a bartending, French-speaking Lothario whose ex-girlfriends always wind up marrying the very next man they date. Kate goes along reluctantly, denying the attraction she herself feels for Billy while she and her friends coldly manipulate him for their own ends. When the time comes for Billy to dump Bina, Kate makes her move and starts falling for him herself, plagued by worries that she's just like all the others. That ceases to matter when Billy learns he'd been manipulated, and he dumps Kate for her perfidy. Kate deals with her past and present, feeling bleak about the future until all is put to rights.

While I could relate to some of her emotions, I found Kate an unsympathetic character: snobby, self-righteous, and cold. While her Brooklyn crowd treats her as if she never left the neighborhood, she holds them in contempt for their lack of taste, sophistication, and success. Not only that, she's always so busy being pissed off at everybody for not seeing things her way, she misses important things that are going on in their lives. Bina is genuinely hurt by her boyfriend's behavior, as he nails everything with a pulse in Hong Kong, but Kate never takes the time to actually listen when Bina tries to talk to her, merely telling her to shut up and get him back because they were together for six years. Meanwhile, everyone down to her across-the-hall neighbor is genuinely concerned and interested in Bina's life. Though often mildly amused by their taste, Elliott and Brice develop a genuine affection for Kate's Brooklyn friends and seamlessly integrate themselves into the crowd. I hoped that Kate might come to realize she was superficial and judgmental and become a better person, but was disappointed in that regard. Instead, everything falls into place and she gets everything she wanted without a single epiphany.

Though I found Kate's character arrogant, she was nonetheless well-drawn, as were all the other prominent characters. I also liked this book for the underlying depth that had been missing in a couple of Goldsmith's fluffier books. While I'm glad I don't have to live in Manhattan, it's always fun to visit, and this book does not disappoint.

This is a hideous book, with trite, barely one-dimensional characters, an unlikable, annoying, narcissistic heroine, an inane plot, poor dialog, and unimaginative language. Sadly, I believe the book has been optioned as a movie, good luck chuck, starring Jessica Alba.

This could have been a light, escapist read, but suffers from a lack of editing and an author who's been taking psych one and can't help but casually drop her newfound knowledge, thinly disguised as self-involved introspection by the heroine.

Do not buy this book. Do not check it out from a library. If you find this book on a bench in the park, do the world a favor and recycle it. If you put your mind to it, you could probably write a better, more enjoyable romantic comedy yourself, and believe me, you'd have more fun trying than you would reading Dumping Billy.

I was so sad to hear of the demise of Olivia Goldsmith. She was one of the best, funniest authors with great stories and characters. I always looked forward to her writings. This novel, too, met my expectations. As I read it, I felt so sad that little did she know it would be her last (although I think I read there might be one more in process of publication, I hope). I thought it was a pretty good replication of people, be it Jew, Catholic, gay, working class, Bronx, whatever. People shouldn't take themselves too seriously. I loved her characters, her heroine and hero! It was a good escape for me, and I read it in one night. Blessing, Olivia, you will be missed.