3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fun, quirky book, November 14, 2006
This review is from: Miss Understanding (Paperback)
While this novel stands alone, it can also be seen as a spin off of Lessing's successful first novel, She's Got Issues. Tales of two sisters: She's Got Issues follows shoe-obsessed fashionista Chloe Rose, while Miss Understanding follows slobby feminist Zoe Rose. Both books, each in their own way, also take a look into the underbelly of the fashion magazine world, focusing on the fictional Issues magazine.
Issues magazine is populated by a number of interesting characters: the ditzy "mental health editor" (read: advice columnist), the clueless fifty-year-old editor who dresses like she's twenty, and the classic evil-to-the-core boss, just to name a few. One of the country's premier women's magazines, Issues focuses on fashion, beauty, and all things superficial.
Owner and managing editor, Dan Princely brings Zoe Rose, formerly of The Radical Mind, on board as deputy editor because he knows the magazine is ready for a change. His staff, on the other hand, disagree.
Miss Understanding chronicles Zoe's quest to change the way women relate to each other--to, as she puts it, "raid the locker room of the female psyche and rip open the frilly facade of femininity once and for all" --using Issues (newly renamed Miss Understanding: A Girl's Guide to Girls) as her platform.
The clash between feminism and the desire to be feminine is at the heart of this zany novel. Through Zoe, Lessing asks a number of difficult questions about what it means to be a woman today and why exactly women fight among themselves instead of helping each other to reach the top. The novel, while entertaining, does little to provide solutions to those problems.
And, even more unfortunately, Zoe's over-the-top hypochondria and other neuroses take away both from her ability to affect solutions in that fictional world and from readers' ability to relate to her as a protagonist.
A magazine veteran, Stephanie Lessing worked as Copy Chief for Mademoiselle before becoming a freelancer for Bride's, Glamour, Self, Vanity Fair, and Vogue among others. Her first novel, She's Got Issues, was published in 2005.
Armchair Interviews says: Miss Understanding is a fun, quirky book, but don't expect too much from it.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Missed Potential, October 25, 2006
This review is from: Miss Understanding (Paperback)
A neurotic hypochondriac, Zoe Rose is her own woman. Ever since witnessing the cruelty of girls toward each other in kindergarten, she has studied behavior between girls and women. As an adult, she seizes an opportunity to spread her message of treating each other right. She believes women will make better strides in the world if they support rather than sabotage each other.
As a new editor at a popular women's magazine, Zoe shakes up the trendy crew with a new name for the publication, and a fresh perspective on content. Her brother-in-law's mother bands with longtime staffers to undermine the new efforts.
Zoe doesn't care what people think about her lack of style, sudden weight gain, or eating habits. In fact, an old friend is solidly on her side. What she does care about is that the wonderful medium of a best-selling magazine can do some good in the world, if it isn't irretrievably sabotaged. Why can't some people understand that she just wants to save the world's women from each other?
While the idea for this story an endearing premise, it falls far short of expectations. Zoe is a difficult character to enjoy. Between obsessing over germs, pregnancy tests, and trying to make women treat each other nice, she comes across as snarky, insensitive, and too full of herself. For being so smart, she is incredibly oblivious to the pregnancy that is obvious to everyone else, and her article/spread ideas are only mildly inspired. Rambling dialogue further slows the plot, threatening to loss the reader's interest. The multiple group discussions (magazine staff meetings) are difficult to follow at times, as well.
Although the author's message was well meaning, the read itself was something of a disappointment.
Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
10/20/2006
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
this time the sister has the issues, November 4, 2006
This review is from: Miss Understanding (Paperback)
Publisher Dan Princely thinks highly of his sister-in-law's concept to renovate Issues magazine from its non cerebral past of shoes and shopping to focus on female empowerment. He hires his wife's sister sartorial-phobic Zoe Rose to revamp the magazine.
The under 5 foot under 100 pounds dynamo Zoe changes the name from Issues to MISS UNDERSTANDING, but fails to sell the staff with the concept of an unentertaining how to get ahead "technical" manual. The staff loathes the concept and detests the aggressive Naopleanette. Separately each vows to destroy Zoe and get royal Dan to fire the royal pain in the butt. Soon battle lines are drawn between the stylish staff and Dan's queen mother vs. the ranting anti frilly Zoe supported solely by her as righteous sibling Chloe.
Satirical though humorless, MISS UNDERSTANDING focuses on the war between the "always right morally correct" (in their minds) and "my way or the highway puerile" (sort of sounds like the political parties). As the attacks on Zoe rise, she turns even more obstinate and self indulgent claiming the moral high ground while her enemies become more vindictive, which embellishes the spiral as no one heard of compromise and consensus. Fans of out of control office war character studies will want to read Stephanie Lessing's sequel to SHE'S GOT ISSUES as this time the sister has the issues.
Harriet Klausner
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