Customer Reviews

Nip 'n' Tuck

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

 

 

What a find. Just a pulpy pick-up off a random book store, and I find myself devouring the novel from cover to cover. It recreates with fascinating honesty a world where bodily contours are critical; a world with an alternative reflection on the complexities of age, image and marriage in the twenty first century. Gruelling exercising regimes, plastic surgeons, ribald but rip-roaring one liners -- this is fast paced and a highly amusing read. Oh, and it's quite an insightful read too, well-rinsed in worldly ways.

Please don't confuse this book with the new TV show "Nip/Tuck"! I like that show, too, but this book is decidedly, 100% comedy. Lette's writing is pure comic genius, with every sentence holding a zinger.

"Nip `n' Tuck" is told from inside the slightly neurotic mind of Lizzie, who's staring down age 40. She's being shoved over at her position as a news reporter by younger, perkier talking heads; and she's having severe doubts about the fidelity of her too-good-to-be-true plastic surgeon husband.

Although this falls squarely within the "chick lit" genre, this is TONS funnier than anything else I've read in years. Not only is Lizzie's inner dialogue hysterical, but the mental images Lette creates are uproarious, especially as she invokes the image of a hyperreal Pamela Anderson-type seducing Lizzie's husband. The story takes a completely unreal turn towards the end, but it makes for a delicious slapstick resolution. Please do not expect this to read like a novelization of "Extreme Makeovers"; it's so much more like the zany misadventures of Lucy Ricardo brought into the 21st century.

If you can get your hands on this novel, READ IT!! It's a wonderful comedic antidote to anything depressing (i.e., real life). Lette is here to stay, and I can't wait to read something else by her!

Read the other reviews for the story line. The start and the plot of this book is far better than MAD COWS by Cathy Lette.

The beginning is brilliant we really get involved in her life and what is happening. Then there is a huge change of pace. The author throws all these one line quips in there. I could imagine her at a dinner party they would be funny and everyone would laugh but this is in the middle of a great story and it falls apart for a while. One quip is her book Mad Cows also. the same quip is in the prologue then the same quip in the book.so that is 3 times I have heard it. Is this author one of those people at a dinner table who tell the same story over and over forgetting that she has already told these people that joke.

The story eventually picks up again and ends up well. I feel the editor could have suggested some cuts and this story would have been deserving a 5 star. But the way it is. Beginning to half way 5 star. After that 1 star then a 4 star ending.

So average 3 star. If you are used to heavy reads don't get this book if your a chic lit person maybe you can just glide over the block of quips and just ignor them.

Too full of acerbic wit that in the end became very mechanical and lost its spotaneity. Also characters are too neurotic for my taste. The protagonist, Lizze McPhee is similar to "Bridget Jones", very neurotic. The exception being that Lizzie in this story is trying hard to find justification to divorce her husband, Hugo, whereas Bridget Jones in "Bridget Jones Diary" is trying hard to find herself a lover cum husband.

Female anatomy description is in abundance, so much so that it was frequently bandied around as profanities. You can feel every female organ being hurled and thrust in your face when Lizzie, her sister Victoria and their arch enemy Britney Amore are all together. My thoughts on this are that the author is too over the top with her description and crudity.

Lizzie feels the pressure to undergo cosmetic surgery on her approach to her 40th birthday but is resisting it but ultimately gives in. She later faces a mental breakdown due to her over obsessiveness with her cosmetic surgery enhancements and her suspicious thoughts of her philandering husband.

In my opinion not to my liking but it may suit others if you like this style.

One of the funniest books I've ever read. Lizzie McPhee is turning forty, losing her husband and losing her job. And so she decides to go under the knife, which can only spell trouble. Funny without being a romantic comedy. One of my top reads of the year. (A+)