Customer Reviews

Life a la Mode

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

 

 

This is not your average "chicklit."
It has the typical chicklit brightly-colored, cutsey cartoon embellished cover. The heroine, Holly Phillips, fits the standard template for chicklit heroines: works in publishing, single, lives in the big city, dating, confides in best friend, has a quirky mother, etc...

But that's where the similarities end. In "Life A La Mode", author Linda Lenhoff takes the seemingly ordinary - painting wall trim, cubicle furnishings, a bug in the ladies room, origami - and looks at it in a new light, with wit and specialness.

It seems most chicklit books are about a lonely young woman trying to find that special someone. Life A La Mode is, too, only that special someone for Holly is herself. Much like Carrie Pilby in Caren Lissner's book of the same title, the story is about a person's unique and special interpretations of the quirkiness around her. And learning to accept herself, her situation and be happy.

If you are hoping to read yet another "Single-girl-meets-guy/gets-guy" story, you'll be disappointed in "Life A La Mode". If you want to read a book where the heroine helps you discover the specialness of ordinary life (and you like good writing and dry humor), then I highly recommend this book.

I'll admit I find much of women's fiction, okay, Chick Lit, overly concerned with finding Mr. Right, not to mention finding the perfect pair of overpriced shoes. Life A La Mode looks more at what's real in our lives: not just finding a good guy, but what to do with the not-so-good guys in your life, plus dealing with your mom and sister and work. Life is more than dating, even when you're getting ready for a date, and especially when your mom and sister are telling you about their dates, which are more frequent than your own by far. The book is about juggling the components of your life and the little bits of a la mode that you get on a good day--whether it's ice skating with the main character Holly and her best friend Maria, or struggling to communicate with your long-lost Dad. This book brings a much-needed boost of sweetness to what's becoming a harsh and sometimes crabby genre. The cover with the little slices of pie and hearts really says it all: This book is about the sweet things in life, like searching for love (and finding it). The book isn't about a big hook, it's about the little adventures you treasure in life, and how they add up to something sweet. It's funny and well written. I just loved it!!

Anybody who's ever been a publishing serf in New York City--or who's had a post-college career in any city, for that matter--will find Linda Lenhoff's tome eerily familiar. LIFE A LA MODE is funny and irreverant. There's a lot going on in those little office cubicles....

Thirty years old Holly Phillips lives in Greenwich Village and works as a book production editor. Four years ago she divorced her husband Josh who remarried. Three years ago her father ran off with a cousin that no one heard of so he lives in Texas. Her sister Janie has been engaged five times, but never made it to I do and now number six has been hooked. Finally her mother is running off with her lover on an African safari.

At work her cubicle mate shy Tom has been coming on to her with his origami of animals gifts. However, Holly has doubts about a relationship especially in the office. Besides she is in now forced into bonding with her mom, her sis, and her best friend Maria but wonders why across the Hudson in Jersey and what topic should she choose in hosting shower six for Janie?

Though a lighthearted romp, LIFE A LA MODE works because of the humorous Holly who turns the plot into a very funny look at singles life in Manhattan. The story line will amuse the audience as Holly provides asides on everyone else even while she is forced into women binding and a potential cubicle romance. Readers will laugh loudly at the lead female's outlook on life's deprecating and embarrassing moments caused by friend and family.

Harriet Klausner

I read another review that expressed really well what I thought of this book. No story development, no character development, no plot.... in a word: pointless. But the other reviewer went on to recommend the book. There's where my opinion differs. I agree that the book was readable, that (and my curiousity) was what kept me from giving up on it entirely by the time I was half way through. But once I'd finished it I wondered what the point of it had been. Bottom line is it's not as bad as some books I've read but it's completely unmemorable.

Ms. Lenhoff's grasp of modern single life is complete! She captures the vagaries of female single-hood in particular, with sharp insight, tremendous humor and lots of feeling. I loved this book!

If you're anything like me, you'll finish this book feeling that you now have a small, partially-redecorated studio apartment you can visit next time you're in the Greenwich Village area.

Holly's victories and defeats in her publishing cubicle and in her love life are small against the large backdrop of New York City (a Manhattan that exists somewhat nostalgically just before computers and cell phones and recent historical events increased the velocity of our lives) and against the more active social lives of her sister and both her parents, but their smallness seems to make her voice that much more trustworthy.

I finished this book feeling like I had made a friend, and knew all the important stories about her life and her realistically quirky family.

At the age of thirty, Holly Phillips's life is in a standstill. She's in a career rut, her ex-husband has begun to make surprise visits and her younger sister is engaged... for the seventh time! The relationship front is non-existent, to put it mildly. She has a relationship of sorts with a shy co-worker. Her life couldn't be more remote and it looks as though things aren't bound to improve...

And that is the basics of the novel. The heroine chronicles her adventures and struggles with friends, family and men. Story development is notably missing. There is no hook, no specific point to the novel. Have I missed something? The ending gave me the impression that the author had illustrated the heroine's inability to accept changes in her life. But was that the plot? Or was the story centered on her relationship with her father? Or was it centered on her relationship with her sister? Or her ex-husband? Or her timid co-worker? There were times in which I had no idea what the novel was really about.

However, Life a la Mode is not a bad book. It's quite readable and it managed to keep me interested until the end. It brings nothing new to the chick-lit genre though. All in all, despite the loose ends, I recommend Life a la Mode.