Customer Reviews

Miss Misery: A Novel

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

 

 

Just as I said, good book, but better soundtrack. And these are just the songs that were referenced throughout the book (in order). This doesn't include all the other name-dropping of bands (I have a list of those as well). Only song that I left off was Tommy Tutone's "867-5309" because one, it didn't fit well between Buckingham's "Trouble" and "Miss Misery" and two, I could fit them all on to three CDs if I cut one song. Here they are:

Track Title Artist
1 A Lack Of Color Death Cab For Cutie
2 The Good That Won't Come Out Rilo Kiley
3 To Wish Impossible Things The Cure
4 A New Name For Everything The Weakerthans
5 The Swiss Army Romance Dashboard Confessional
6 Loss Leaders Spoon
7 On To You The Constantines
8 Banquet Bloc Party
9 Evil Interpol
10 Monday-Paracetamol Ulrich Schnauss
11 Gloriuos Adorable
12 Lips Like Sugar Echo & The Bunnymen
13 We Will Become Silhouettes The Postal Service
14 Perfect Skin Lloyd Cole
15 Bonus Mosh, pt. II Taking Back Sunday
16 You're So Last Summer Taking Back Sunday
17 The Metro Berlin
18 Carve Your Heart Out Yourself Dashboard Confessional
19 Still In Love Song The Stills
20 NYC Interpol
21 Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others The Smiths
22 Dream Police Cheap Trick
23 Not That Funny Fleetwood Mac
24 Charlotte Sometimes The Cure
25 Reptilia The Strokes
26 The 15th Wire
27 Miss Lucifer Primal Scream
28 Burning Photographs Ryan Adams
29 Coney Island Death Cab For Cutie
30 Tidal Wave Longwave
31 Victim Of The Crime Phoenix
32 Stephanie Says The Velvet Underground
33 Jacqueline Franz Ferdinand
34 Shattered The Rolling Stones
35 Beating Heart Baby Head Automatica
36 Temptation New Order
37 She's Hearing Voices Bloc Party
38 This Is Our Emergency Pretty Girls Make Graves
39 Mystery Achievement Pretenders
40 The Trial Of The Century The French Kicks
41 The Two Sides Of Monsieur Valentine Spoon
42 I Know I'm Not Wrong Fleetwood Mac
43 Cinnamon The Long Winters
44 Head Full Of Steam The Go-Betweens
45 If You Knew Her As I Know Her The Mendoza Line
46 July, July! The Decemberists
47 Fourth Of July Galaxie 500
48 There's A Glory In Your Story Idlewild
49 Sympathy The Get Up Kids
50 Y Control Yeah Yeah Yeahs
51 Ladyflash The Go! Team
52 Calm Before The Storm The Bats
53 Look Up The Stars
54 2 Far Dizzee Rascal (feat. Wiley)
55 This Bitter Pill Dashboard Confessional
56 Work Jimmy Eat World
57 Trouble Lindsey Buckingham
58 Miss Misery Elliott Smith

I'll have to type this review fast because my kids need a bath and it's past their bedtime.... If you can relate to this sentence then this book is not for you. If you can't relate, and you're reading my review right before you're going out to hit the clubs then this book is for you.

I really liked the character in David Gould, and Cath Kennedy (online name is Miss Misery) was more than captivating and interesting. The several dozen band references, however, had me lost because I haven't been in that scene in 10+ years or so.

The plot was fast paced and kept me reading, and for that, I give the author credit. It's seems to me that he has a promising future. You also should visit his Web site at www.andygreenwald.com to get a better idea of how in-touch he his with his readers. He is very connected with modern day technology and has a great following, which is well deserved.

To enjoy this book you need to have the ability to "get lost" in it and go along with the premise that every other character is convinced of the authenticity of David Gould's look-alike, who is out to exploit his undecidedness and weaknesses. It also wouldn't hurt if you are a regular viewer of MTV or love reading books which incorporate a modern day musical theme into the story.

Andy Greenwald's first book, "Nothing Feels Good: Punk Rock, Teenagers, and Emo," may have been a great work of non-fiction, but this ode to "emo" bands, such as Dashboard Confessional and The Promise Ring, does not compare to his first fiction novel, "Miss Misery." Previous to writing books, he wrote articles for "Spin" and still contributes to the magazine as a senior writer.

Greenwald's protagonist, David Gould, faces the problems most twentysomethings usually do, such as paying rent on his Brooklyn apartment and trying to get over his long term girlfriend, Amy, who recently moved to Europe for work. However, he soon realizes that his mundane problems are not as bad as they seem when a mysterious doppelganger succeeds in stealing his identity, a teenage girl from Salt Lake City flies to his New York City home to escape her Mormon parents, and Gould himself falls in love, or possibly lust, with Cath Kennedy (aka: Miss Misery).

It may seem like the typical story of two people meeting online, meeting in person, and falling in love, but "Miss Misery" is so much more. Cath is not actually sure whether she is in love with David. Being the only person who knows that Gould and his impersonator are two entirely different people, she cannot decide which one she likes more. Although the real Gould is a nice person, he's a bit too boring for Cath and she tends to favor the DJ-ing, coke-snorting, partying "David #2."

Just when Gould has had enough of his own problems, Ashleigh, a seventeen-year-old girl from Utah, drops in with her typical adolescent troubles. After she coerces David into flying into Sake Lake for a few hours to see her reputedly horrible surroundings, he realizes that she does have a few things to complain about, but not enough to run away from home. He then convinces her stay in Utah and deal with her overbearing parents until college.

Including a list for the perfect mix CD, as well as song titles name-dropped throughout the book; "Miss Misery" comes complete with a taxi cab chase to the airport, parties at underground clubs in Manhattan, and journal entries made by characters across the country and beyond.

(By the way, I'm not actually a "kid under 13 years old" & anyone under 13 should DEFINITELY NOT read this book.)

As the parent of teenagers, I picked this up hoping to learn something about the needs/desires of the next generation. Actually I'm so decrepit that I listened to the books on tape version. On the back it said that Andy Greenwald was the voice of this generation (or words to that effect). I have to admit to not knowing much of the music cited in the book so I can really only comment on plot, character development and general entertainment value.

The plot was fairly slow moving. There is a great deal of introspection on the part of the main character, David Gould. The theme of the book might be "finding oneself", but not enough happens to justify a real catharsis for the main character. I found myself wanting to know more about the other characters in the book. I frankly got tired of David Gould. I believe that the book was supposed to be humorous, but I only laughed a few times.

It very well may be possible to enjoy the book for the band and song references and NYC landmarks, but I didn't have the correct context.

A final note: the book-on-tape reader, Nick Landrum, did an OK job with the male voices in the book, but his representation of the female characters was a little weak.

While "Miss Misery" may seem at first like the hipster's guide to New York, it is really more of a surreal coming-of-age novel that just happens to find its inspiration in the world of early twenty-first century pop culture and e-communication. David Gould is suffering from a twenty-something malaise, trying to make the shift from adolescent potential to adult reality. He must learn to choose his own life. His inability to do this leads to the breakdown of his relationship with his girlfriend, a webblog-fueled depression, and, eventually, a total crisis of being that tears him in two . . . for serious. As he explores the landscape of New York and suburban America, he comes to find out what is actually important to him. Like any good coming-of-age novel, it's a story about learning how to live, and it's a strong debut from Mr. Greenwald.

This book started well, the middle was okay and the end was dissapointing. The main characters are not very believable. The doppelganger concept was somewhat interesting, but holes in the concept were distracting, and the end was a big let down.

The main characters are relatively uninteresting and have no real depth. I thought the biggest problem was when the main character (David) went on a trip to Utah. His actions seemed totally unnatural and contrived.

If there are any authors out there reading this I have one request: Please do not end a book with one of your characters saying something like "Gosh, that was a fun adventure. Maybe I should write a book about it."

I'm trying to think of what I would recommend instead of this book. The only thing that comes to mind is "Middlesex" by Eugenides. I think it is a much better book.

Being a 30 year old female, eclectic and trendy, living in chicago, a Columbia College Chicago Graduate (art school), and though i didn't pursue a creative job for long and presently work as a sales rep. for advertising.....I LOVED THIS BOOK! I completey got it and think it totally fits today! I know people just getting out of art school/college, and this book seemed to be a believable model of the emo/creative era/culture/age group/life style of now.
I couldn't put it down, it was real to me, I got in to the characters. Their attitudes were on, and I loved Greenwald's writing style.

I was bummed when it was over, and i did hope for a different ending...I mean, who cares about the boring a$$ girlfriend who left, Cath (Miss Misery) was soooo much cooler! The doppelganger (spelled right?) thing was different, but made for an interesting topic.

I recommend reading this if you love this kind of scene. Definitely a fun read.

Sooo.. this dobbelganger who is part of 99% of the book just disappears? What a bunch of hooey. This is all so contrived. Of course, I am also reading, "Hello, I'm special" by Hal Niedzviecki now as well but.. come on. Emo kids... that is practically every teen. Dashboard Confessional etc... all that is on corporate radio stations. Death Cab for Cutie is on corporate radio stations. Everybody can be as indidividual as they want by all shopping at Hot topix. There is NO more individualism anymore as everyone just follows after everyone else. Myspace is total crap...how many "friends" do you have?? Are they really friends? I don't know, I thought the book was crap. It started off well and then fizzled about the time that it was disclosed that there really was a doppleganger (a la Fight Club) but in Fight Club we never see the two of them together and on the video we see Ed Norton's character fighting with himself. In this book, there are two of them. More than one person sees them and acknowledges there are two of them and it is never explained what, how, who.. etc.. I'm sure this book will be and is popular with a certain type of reader but for me.. yuck. Pretentious. I will give the authors props for his descriptive writing though and say as an author he does have potential.

I got an advanced copy of this book on eBay over the summer. Needless to say I was locked in my room for three days finishing it. This book is, given the circumstances of the books protaganist, very imaginative...yet the characters are insanely relatable, in one way or the other. We live in an era where teens basically thrive on the internet, using it as the source to download music, gain access to various types of information, and ever increasingly, spill our heart and soul into Blogs; which author Andy Greenwald takes a creative spin to.
I have no idea if any of that makes sense, so bottom line, this is a tremendously good book, and everyone should check it out.

This book takes you into the life of david gould and pulls you into a exciting and fast paced story. it starts where "nothing feels good" left off, and fouses not on the music, but the people that are influenced by the music. it uses instant messages, chat rooms, and journal entries just as NFG did, but it builds each charachter more, allowing the reader to become very attached.
I would reccomend this to anyone... one of my favorite books.