Customer Reviews

Much to Your Chagrin: A Memoir of Embarrassment

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

 

 

This memoir had me laughing from start to finish. The use of the second person makes me think this book deserves a thrown somewhere between the happy-go-lucky tone of chick lit and the braided intellectual romance of Henry Miller because it works on so many levels.

It's a memoir, but it's also about you. And you can feel the highs and lows through the author's really visual and personable writing. It's full of incisive commentary on being a woman on the verge of 30 and trying to make love and work happen in a big bad city.

The answer as Suzanne discovers is to devote herself to a project. Serendipitously, learning great life lessons by asking strangers for their most embarrassing story. Well not always friends and not always lessons but that's what is so great about the book, it's really honest.

Quintessentially New York, full of this fabulous city's famous landmarks and references. The writing is fresh, her great turns of phrase stay with you long after you've seen the back of it. Whether you're on your commute, the beach or your front porch Suzanne's memoir is a great companion and a great read!

I bought this book looking for a light story to read on my commute to and from work. I started it on a Sunday to get into it before the train ride the following day and ended up almost finishing it!

I found myself laughing out loud at several of the author's stories and as a 30 something female, I also found myself relating in so many ways. From her dating struggles to trying to be true to herself, this is a great book for all of us still trying to figure out how to grow up while realizing that we all have days that make us want to crawl back under the covers and hide.

Great book and I am anxiously waiting to see what the author writes next.

This well written and funny romp proved to be a nice distraction from life for me. Guillette's self-depricating humor made me like her even when I wanted to reach into the book and shake some sense into her. Whether you're single or formerly single, Much to Your Chagrin makes for great beach reading and/or bed giggling.

I see good reviews for this book so maybe it is one of those books that some people like and others see as a waste of time. For me, I found the storyline to be pointless dribble. The stories were neither humorous nor entertaining. The words were like watching a stranger sit on a whoopie cushion strategically placed by a rude boy. We could laugh but we are more annoyed at the boy's actions to enjoy any humor in the act.

I read often and usually will accept most books as having some value but if I got the book for free, I still would have been disappointed at my loss of time. Paying good money for the book was an extra tragedy.

This book is consistently hilarious and totally fascinating. I've never read anything like it, I couldn't put it down, and I find myself still thinking about it.

Recommended! Ms. Guillette's first book reveals more than just embarrassing stories, but about the human experience of learning about yourself through others. During the process of asking anyone who would listen for an embarrassing story for her new book, Ms. Guillette soon begins to see that life is writing a pretty sick joke for her as well. She learns that embarrassing doesn't necessarily have to mean funny or laugh out loud, but it could also be humiliation. I really enjoyed that she lived in New York and could include the aura of New York during certain moments. Written in the 2nd person voice, the stories from strangers tied in beautifully with her own life help you flip through the 403 pages. In the end, she learns a lesson that I think all of us will have to in our lifetime.

Almost thirty, no longer engaged, and a recent recipient of a Master of Fine Arts degree Suzanne Guillette had a concept for her first book that Jack her new literary agent felt had merit. The wannabe author would write anecdotal true stories of embarrassing moments collected from family, friends, strangers, and her own. Surprisingly many people volunteered their tales of humiliation. The author found most could be classified in common categories like clothing, relationships (especially romantic), office blunders and body emissions (liquid that feel warm and fuzzy or look like uncooked oysters and gas bombs that is louder than a heavy metal band while the smell clings to everything). Well written, the best embarrassments are the one's the author provides as those like misunderstanding her relationship with Jack or the need to sneak out to smoke while working at a health agency are the top as they set the bar for others. Humorous (as long as it is not you) and honest especially by Ms. Guilette, readers will enjoy these forthright memoirs that affirm to err is human, but to be embarrassingly caught is divine-not.

Harriet Klausner

Who hasn't been embarrassed to the point of wanting to just crumble and disappear? A stroke of genius for the author to write this book in the second person YOU !! It is impossible not to see ourselves in her shoes, our shoes, everyone's shoes -- just continually "stepping in it." I am twice her age and found so much that made me squirm -- seems we don't forget embarrassments! And who doesn't enjoy a good story of self-discovery? Tremendously entertaining book, well-spun tale. Read it in a jiffy because I didn't want to let go of it for very long...

I purchased this book on my Kindle and promptly forgot what it was about. I never did figure it out the entire time I was reading it. I found the plot pointless and meandering. The book simply ends without any resolution (not that there was any resolution to be had, given that there was little plot to begin with); I mean, what was the point? I couldn't muster any empathy for the main character; instead I found her unlikeable and self absorbed. I read a ton of memoirs, and this one has to be at the bottom of the list.

This novel has an unlikeable main character, no plot, and 12-15 undelineated characters that randomly float in and out of the story. I kept waiting for SOMETHING to happen in this book, but it just droned on and on and on. The 'trick' to this novel is the main character is writing a book about embarrassing moments and the story is interspersed with these anecdotes. A few were funny, but most were on the order of: I got so drunk I urinated on myself.