Customer Reviews

Good in Bed

5 star:		(418)
4 star:		(203)
3 star:		(86)
2 star:		(62)
1 star:		(66)

 

 

I must confess that I was predisposed to like "Good in Bed," since I've been a big fan of Jennifer Weiner's newspaper columns for some time. I wasn't, however, prepared for how fine a first novel she has produced, or how moved I was by Cannie's story. The book begins with a hilarious hook: protagonist Cannie Shapiro, entertainment columnist for a large Philadelphia newspaper, realizes that her recently-ex-boyfriend has been hired by a Cosmo-like magazine to write a [adult] column. To her horror, Cannie realizes that the pseudo-anonymous woman "C." in Bruce's first article is her. To make this invasion of privacy even more humiliating, the column is an unexpectedly perceptive treatment of Cannie's weight problem and its effect on their relationship. At first glance, one might assume the snarky tone of the first few pages would continue as the novel spun out in a kind of lightweight revenge fantasy. But Weiner uses Cannie's heartbreaking invasion of privacy as jumping off point for so much more. We see Cannie grow and change, exorcising childhood demons (mostly), getting over Bruce (at last), and most moving of all, finally coming to terms with her place in life (and yes, her weight, too). If the plot is moved along by a few too many incredible coincidences, if the book seems almost too jam-packed with characters and subplots, well, these are minor criticisms of a finely-written and sensitive first novel. Just promise me, Jennifer, you won't let Camryn Manheim star in the movie version.......

Like others who hated this book, I really wanted to enjoy it. Like the main character, I'm a fat word-lover, often too smart and sarcastic for my own good, who considered the Pink Rose Bakery in Philadelphia a second home. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time screaming at this book, and when I was finally finished I threw it against my wall. On the one hand, I admire the author for presenting a full-figured, flawed character. However, Cannie, the heroine, remains self-centered, self-pitying, immature, judgmental, condesceding, elitist, and cruel throughout the whole book, and is repeatedly indulged by friends, loved ones, and worst of all the author, Jennifer Weiner. Weiner allows Cannie to dance through life without having to take responsibility for herself, and the "redemption" she experiences rings false. Worse, the book is littered with cliches, including, most offensively, a lesbian with two cats named Gertrude and Alice, who is reviled by Cannie and her siblings even though it may be the closest her mother has come to a partner in her life. I pity the lesbian reader who reads this book and encounters such a one-dimensional, snide rendering of a stereotype.
A thing that aggravates me about reviews of this book is that many claim it's better than Bridget Jones because the character is heavier, a "real fat woman." I found Bridget a lot more likeable, regardless of her weight, because you got to see her standing by her friends. Cannie seems to have friends who treat her a lot better than she treats them, or herself. While I'm sure that the author saw Cannie as very kind, the glimpses of a loving Cannie are few and far between her monologues of self-loathing. Also, I think that the idea that the "realness" of a woman being centered around her weight is just as dangerous as arguing that her beauty is based on her weight.
I would have loved to have read a story about a woman who finds love and beauty within herself without the aid of fairy godmothers or a charming prince. I'll even let a character have the fairy tale if she stops blaming everyone else for everything that's gone wrong in her life, especially people who try to love her or who have done nothing to her (blaming the evil people is worthwhile only to a point, and she exceeds it). Neither of those things happened to my satisfaction in this book. I wouldn't want someone like Cannie in my life, and I don't want this book on my shelf.

This is a really wonderful novel.

Touching, sweet, warm, often-hysterically funny, Jennifer Weiner's debut novel is the kind of book you try to pace yourself on because you know you want to parcel out the joy, but find yourself staying up until 2 am finishing because you can't put it down.

Cannie Shapiro is a remarkable heroine with a true voice, wise yet still learning, embattled yet still fighting. This isn't one of those book where unhappy girl finds happiness by losing weight and finding a man. This is a book where happiness comes from self-acceptance and the realization that one is not alone, and if there happens to be a guy around, well, all the better.

Cannie is great. The office stuff rings true. So does that evil publicist in NYC. But it's more than the truth of how things feel -- it's Cannie/Jennifer's voice in describing her universe, so funny and warm, like a friend you wish you had. I even liked Nifkin!

Guys, ignore the pink stuff on the cover, and hide the title if it embarrasses you to read in public -- this one's for us too. Everyone should read this book, read it now, then buy another copy for a friend.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. Read it: you'll see. It deserves to be a movie, and it will be a great movie.

Whatever Weiner has in store for us next, I'll be first in line.

I read many reviews here on Amazon about how great this book was so I decided to give it a shot...big mistake. The first part of this book was funny at times, clever, and made me want to read more. The farther along this book progressed I found myself hating the main character more and more. She was whiney, self absorbed, and rude to everybody she wasn't friends with.

The character of Cannie was so utterly bitter that I found myself actually hoping she wouldn't get the fairy tale ending we all knew she would get. I'm all for the idea of having a plus size main character, but she was absoultey horrid to anybody who wasn't plus sized in this novel. The writer made you sympathize for Cannnie with all of her weight struggles, but the way she made thin people into evil beings made me like Cannie even less. She went too overboard with the "woe is me, because I'm fat" issue. For instance, the thin nurse in the doctors office who was trying to be pleasent to everybody, the author made her out to be this horrible character all because she was thin. I really had it with this issue when she was at some ridiculous Hollywood party and she told some "size 0" movie star she liked her music and the lady responds with "If I had a nickel for every fat girl who said that to me..." *NOBODY* is going to be that rude, and that is the way all thinner people are portrayed in this book. I have no problem with having the main character be larger, and showing that bigger people can be successful and elaborating on the hardships and mean spirited ways people can be just because of a bigger size, but it's extremely condescending that the author turns around and does the same thing to thin people throughout the entire book.

The BIGGEST complaint with this book was the complete and total lack of realism. Meeting a multi-millionare actress in a bathroom and becoming best friends over a night of drinking? Having your movie script which nobody would touch all of a sudden being turned into a movie? Having a rich, handsome doctor fall madly in love with you? Going out to a lake with an incredibly attractive movie star who you've been lusting after for years? And then having him leave his sports car there for you to drive for the weekend??

This book went from starting off fresh and clever, to quickly becoming stale and repulsive by the amount of whining and constant references to her ex boyfriend on every other page, to becoming such a ridiculous fairy tale that not many would enjoy.
By the end of this book I couldn't stand Cannie and understood why Bruce didn't want her back.

This book started out good but quickly went downhill. The main character Cannie spends much of the book whining about how hard her life is because she is overweight. She tells you she hates skinny people and delights in trying to make them look foolish. Bruce Cannie's ex-boyfriend writes an insightful article about their relationship and her problems with her self image because of her weight, but Cannie is incensed because he calls her fat and overweight in a national magazine and misses most of what he is trying to convey in the article. We are also supposed to empathize with her because Bruce called her fat even though she describes herself as fat and overweight throughout the book. Besides since Bruce doesn't want Cannie we are supposed to believe he is a jerk ... . I couldn't understand why Bruce or any of Cannie's friends put up with her or wasted any time on someone who was so insecure, obnoxious and needy.
Oh wait, as the author keeps telling us she's "funny" and fun to be around, although bitter would be a more accurate description of many of Cannie's not so funny one-liners. Cannie goes from being a promising character to a boring, self-involved, narcissistic, grating, selfish jerk. The author has the main character making so many one-liners it was hard to empathize with or get any real feeling of the character. When she was describing her relationship with her father all I could think was "okay, whatever." We are supposed to feel sorry for her because her father "forced" her to go to Princeton, and made her pay for some of her tuition. Cry me a river! She does a poor me story about her time at Princeton even though she got to write for the school paper and accomplished her goals. None of that mattered though because everyone at Princeton had "perfect bodies and shiny hair", oh the injustice of it all Poor Cannie. Dont let me get started on her childhood where she whines that her 5 bedroom house wasnt painted as often as the neighbors or the in-ground pool in her backyard wasnt well maintained after her father left. These are her childhood problems?! Give me a break!
None of the other characters in the book were developed. Apparently they have no lives or problems of their own. They merely exist to be a sounding board for Cannie and to tell her how funny and wonderful she is. When the story turned Hollywood the author really lost me then. I am annoyed with myself for even bothering to finish this book.

Good In Bed is every woman's nightmare and reality! Readers will completely identify with the topics that range from - the fear of being judged for the way you look (too fat, too thin, not pretty enough...) to the never ending questions of "why didn't my last relationship work" and "will I EVER find someone else" and "did I make a huge mistake, was he supposed to be The One?" Cannie, the book's main character could easily be your best friend or even you.

At the start of Good In Bed (The name of the column, Cannie's ex Bruce is now writing for hotter than hot Moxie magazine), the reader is introduced to Cannie (Candace) Shapiro - an overweight, entertainment reporter for the Philadelphia Examiner. Cannie, who has recently told her boyfriend of 3 years Bruce that she wants to "take a break" discovers that he has used their love life as a basis for his new sex column - the first column is called "Loving a Larger Woman" - Cannie is humiliated and enraged.

Cannie turns to her newly out lesbian mother, best friend and a weight loss support group for help. Along the way she meets Dr. K, Maxie Ryder (Hollywood's hottest new "it" girl) and many others - including Bruce's new "petite" girlfriend. Bruce has let her down just like her father - a plastic surgeon who left his wife and family with no forwarding address - an issue that Cannie must face in order to make peace with herself.

This book must be partially autobiographical - at least it feels that way to this reader. Many of the references to people, places and events are just a tad too real (and thinly veiled) but it does not detract from the great read that Jennifer Weiner provides in Good In Bed.

Not to sound too clichéd but I laughed and cried and cheered Cannie throughout the book - as if she were one of my girlfriends. I really enjoyed reading this and I eagerly look forward to Jennifer's next book. While this isn't "Great Literature" it makes for a great, light read.

The premise of this novel is excellent: after all the 'thin is best' propaganda, including that propagated by Jane Green's 'Jemima J', it's great to see a book which not only criticises the anti-fat culture in our world today, but argues that it's not necessary to be thin in order to be loved.

Cannie is in her twenties, an averagely-successful journalist on a city paper, just taking a breathing-space from a three-year relationship with Bruce... and is fat. Which, she claims, does not bother her, though we, the readers, suspect that this isn't the case. Then the bombshell strikes: Bruce has just got a column with a popular national women's magazine, and his first column is entitled 'Loving a Larger Woman'. And guess what? It's about him and Cannie, to whom he refers as his ex.

Cannie has never thought of herself as a larger woman until this point. And the article is crueller still: it begins 'I will never forget the day I discovered that my girlfriend weighs more than me.' And finishes: 'Loving a larger woman is an act of courage in the modern world'.

Naturally, she is humiliated, and the relationship is now completely over. Too late, she reads the full article, only to discover that it wasn't cruel after all, that Bruce understood her insecurities and hang-ups only too well all along, and that he loved her regardless of them. Her weight was an issue with her, not with him, and his reference to loving her being an act of courage meant that she, not him, made it difficult for them to be together because she could never quite convince herself that he loved her.

This is an extraordinary article, written with sensitivity and feeling. So here's my first problem with the book: we're supposed to believe that Bruce is an insensitive, uncaring loser. Huh? The guy who wrote that article? I also find it hard to believe that the guy who wrote that article is the same one who responded as he did to Cannie's letter telling him that she's pregnant.

Other reviewers have outlined other aspects of the plot. Count me in with those who found the Hollywood twist too fantastic, and actually a detraction from what was a good, sincere and intelligent story. I couldn't take the screenplay and the sudden best-friends with a movie star development at all seriously, and certainly not Cannie's flirtation with a film heart-throb who appeared to find her incredibly attractive, despite her large figure and her obvious pregnancy. That part of the book was wasted space to me.

However, there were other elements in the book I really enjoyed, such as Cannie's speech to the nurse in the diet center, Dr K, and the insights into what it's like to be more than just a little plump. I know I'll understand my larger friends better having read this book.

Newspaper columnist Jennifer Weiner's debut novel is a canny and comedic look at the tribulations of a plus size gal in a size 2 fixated America.

Cannie Shapiro is astonished to find her ex, Bruce Guberman, writing a column called "Good In Bed" for a major women's magazine. His opener is titled "Loving A Larger Woman," in which he tells all about his relationship with Cannie - their sometimes good, sometimes so-so sex life, and her obsession with her Raphaelesque dimensions.

After venting to her best buddy, Samantha, then to her otherwise absorbed mother who has just come out of the closet and cohabited with another woman, Cannie has an unsuccessful, brief reconciliation with Bruce who is soon trumpeting in print his relationship with a not especially intelligent but reed-thin woman.

Suffering from public embarrassment and the low self-esteem visited upon her by a father who was mostly absent, Cannie signs up for a Weight and Eating Disorders Clinic. There's more than diet on the menu for her there.

"Good In Bed" is a boisterous banquet of a story making it clear that a woman's worth isn't defined by her girth.

"Good in Bed" was the most recent book selection in one of my reading groups. Our past few selections have been a bit more on the literary side, but we decided to lighten things up for the summer. "Good in Bed" was our first selection for the summer season and in my opinion, it was an excellent choice. It was a quick, enjoyable, easy read without being a total piece of fluff. A perfect beach book!

The novel is told in the first person by 28 year old Cannie Shapiro who works as a writer for a newspaper in Philadelphia. Cannie recently decided to split with her boyfriend of 3 years, Bruce, and is horrified to find herself the focus of a magazine article that he writes called "Loving a Larger Woman". This article jolts Cannie into a mission to improve her life. The book follows Cannie as she deals with love, family, and career. Cannie is a strong woman with a fabulous sense of humor. Several outrageous, fairy-tale-like events happen to her throughout the course of the novel. And while some of these may seem far-fetched it is a great, entertaining story and a wonderful way to escape from the tedium of your everyday life.

One great aspect of the novel is that unlike many others dealing with a main female character that is overweight, Cannie does find contentment in her life without dropping down to a size 6. Cannie is a great, strong female character who is likable and easy to identify with.

This was a great book. I loved the heroine Cannie -- her realistic features and the absurdities in her daily life that are recognizable to so many of us: obnoxious co-workers, skinny nurses at fat clinics, [bad]men. I laughed, I cried, I ached and sometimes I hoped that Bruce would get beaten up. I mean, every girl that's been through college dated this guy, didn't they? The obligatory grad student ponytail, the smart-but-lazy pothead all around 'good guy'? Jennifer portrayed him perfectly, both the loveable parts and the parts we loathed.

Cannie's weight -- what can I say? I read the shortened excerpt in Mode Magazine -- so I obviously related to the 'body-image' aspect of Cannie's hang-ups. My favorite part of the book was when she stood up and did her tirade at the nurse in the fat clinic -- I absolutely cracked up and called a friend to read it aloud.

At the beginning of the second half of the book, I was slightly annoyed at the very unrealistic turn of events (meeting Maxie, selling a screenplay, hobnobbing with stars, the whole Dr. K thing doesn't actually happen to many of us and I related so much better to the first part of the book) but -- isn't that the point? I mean, the book was entertaining, funny, sweet, tender and yes, a fantasy. It wouldn't have been nearly as interesting if Cannie went on like she was, pining for Bruce as he humiliated her in public on a monthly basis, becoming something of an overaged college-girl-never-reaching-her-potential with a funny dog. She grew up, 'came of age', whatever you want call it and in the end, got the sweetest revenge of all -- happiness and success.

Thank you Jennifer, for writing this book, I will eagerly await your next novel. As one of the reviewers mentioned was possible, I did stay up 'til exactly 2 a.m. this morning to finish it. Now, tired with puffy eyes (I cried a lot at the end) I'd better get to work.

I hope you don't change when you become wildly famous and successful -- you're a fabulous writer and judging from your wonderful sense of humor, I bet a fun person to know.

Leslie