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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Another Complex and Interesting Protagonist,
By
This review is from: The Man of My Dreams: A Novel (Hardcover)
The wonderfully misleading thing I found about this book as well as 'Prep' was that you think it's just another fluffy coming of age story complete with a wry, sarcastic narrator who always has some witty, glib comment to make while achieving a rich and deserving fictional happiness.How far this is from the truth. Sittenfeld carves out young Hannah Gavener's quest for her prince charming and happily ever after with a blunt end of sobering reality. Not afraid of embuing Hannah with some ugly characteristics makes her so much more identifiable, and consequently sympathetic and relatable. Sittenfeld is a terrific writer, and most importantly one that continues to not be afraid to present people as they really are without a concern for what anyone thinks.
28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A Strong Effort, a Good Book, But Don't Expect it on any Year-End lists,
By
This review is from: The Man of My Dreams: A Novel (Hardcover)
When your first book is as amazing as Prep, your second book had better be great. Readers have high expectations. We know what we can rightfully expect.Curtis Sittenfeld, unlike a lot of young writers with one successful novel on the shelves, didn't fail her audience with The Man of My Dreams. The story follows Hannah from childhood through adulthood, in and out of relationships as she struggles to find a way to be happy and comfortable and true. The writing is wonderful, capturing the moods of a bad camping trip, of being trapped in a car with a bullying father, of the ambivalence a woman feels with a too-doting lover. Hannah rings very true to life; there is nothing exaggerated or false. The writing and character developments may be great, but the book feels very much like a short-story collection, like a variation on Melissa Bank and her latest book The Wonder Spot. This isn't a failure, but it's a surprise. A reader could rightfully expect something more original from Sittenfeld, something more profound. Being pleasantly entertained is wonderful, but one hopes that Sittenfeld reaches a little out of her comfort zone for her next book. It would be great if she could channel the writing into something that is more than the sum of its parts.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sophomore Jinx?,
By
This review is from: The Man of My Dreams: A Novel (Hardcover)
I mostly enjoyed reading this novel and got through it quickly, but started liking it less almost the minute I finished it. The format was very "Prep" like, what with the skipping over from one time period to the next. However, whereas this device worked well in "Prep," perhaps because time was gated by the beginning and ending of four years of school, here I found it abrupt and jarring. If anything it left too much to be filled in by the imagination. I almost had the sense the book (and writing) were rushed to capitalize on the success of "Prep" so that the author did not become another "Donna Tartt." The last chapter, in particular, seemed like a cheap way out and was overwrought IMO.Ms. Sittenfeld is an excellent writer and I hope that in her next outing she tackles a different theme ("Dreams" was essentially a carbon copy of "Prep", thematically) and that she follows a more traditional, linear format just to see if she can pull it off.
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