Customer Reviews

Pink Slip

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

A great escape novel that I was glad to have read after completing a rigorous and exhausting 3-month work assignment. I completely escaped reality! The book is engrossing. Initially, I was taken aback by the lusty and obscene language, but it certainly set the stage for the plot and characters development. Ms. Ciresi captured the essence and tradeoffs of life and all the issues and subissues intertwined therein. This includes: living in the city compared to the suburbs, the workplace job/career struggle, mother/daughter/sister ties, religious paradoxes, and most of all the complexities in making an unconventional male-female relationship work. Ms. Ciresi's subtle and not so subtle humor made me laugh out loud. I even had tears at times and found myself turning to my husband to tell him the "latest" Lisa event. It's definitely an adult-theme novel and not one for everyone. However, if you enjoy racy, funny books you will enjoy this one of a hardy young American woman (raised as an Italian Catholic) attemting to conquer her real and fictional demons.

I have heard that Rita Ciseri is this era's Jane Austen. She writes books that are both romantic and funny. Well, I don't know if she has what it takes to become this era's Jane Austen, but she has written a very funny and romantic book.

Lisa Diodetto's mother wants her to be married. She is constantly reminded that time is of the essence. But Lisa couldn't be happier living a single life, that is until she meets Eben Strauss -- a straight-laced Jewish man who happens to be Lisa's boss at a pharmaceutical firm. Lisa, whose Italian family is Catholic, is faced with a dilemma. Will her family approve of the relationship? Also, she has kept secrets from her mother, like the abortion she had years ago. There are some incredibly funny and sexy moments in this novel.

This novel is extremely well written and emotional. Ciseri has a way with words. And she has indeed written a beautiful love story that captured me. I have only one objection: the fact that there are too many subplots. It was confusing and seemed misguided at times. But other than that, this book is great. I highly recommend it.

I'm female graduate student in a physics-related subject. Unfortunately I am pretty disillusioned by men (seen too many weirdos in my field!) and also by most fiction written for women (too wordy and/or banal). However, I was so riveted by this wonderful book that I played hooky from the lab for an entire day to stay home and read it. I could write a lot about the quirky heroine and her sweetly irreverent cousin Dodie, but the book is worth reading mainly because of the character of Eben Strauss. He's definitely on the endangered species list - gentle, moral, considerate, loving as well as professionally successful. I am not ashamed to say that I was touched to the point of tears. (for the record, "The Bridges of Madison County" didn't have the same effect on me.) Although the author has drawn upon several stereotypes, the clever dialog paints the characters as eminently REAL, 3-D people. Hope to see more books by the author.

Although I found the protagonist very unlikeable at times, the writing style and the way the author structured the story made me want to finish it in record time. However, looking back on my own experiences in corporate New York and the burbs, it irked me throughout that the only friend Lisa has is her cousin. For someone as lusty and clever as she, you'd think she would have a close, tightly knit circle of friends, rather than spend her off time either with Eben, when it was on again, or alone, or working out. I would think most single career girls fill their time with friends (in between men, work and working out!). I have to say I liked Eben a lot and wondered what he saw in Lisa - she is clearly older than her years and has a lot of baggage....at times the book was incredibly depressing. I don't know that I would pick up another one of Ciresi's books, and this after reading all 3 of Helen Fielding's books and looking for more lighthearted yet driving tales of single women in the mean, mean world. Give it a go if you are looking for a well-written book, but be prepared for a challenge with the main character.

I found Pink Slip to be a very enjoyable, engrossing read that was pretty well-written, interesting and had fairly well-developed characters. There's a lot of humor interspersed with some very perceptive exploration of the corporate climate, inter-office dating and family life.

The novel revolves Lisa, an Italian American whose mother has certain expectations of her, ones that she doesn't necessarily want to fill - that her sister seems to have done what her mother wants complicates the picture. And then there's her cousin, her dear friend, who doesn't really fit into the family either because he's gay. With Lisa at the center and Dodie playing a significant role, the book explores Lisa's experience as she leaves New York City for a suburban corporation where she gets involved with a co-worker who also happens to be her superior.

There's lots in the book that is funny, some that's sad and a lot that is touching. Lisa's relationship is far from perfect from the start yet the reader understands what draws her to this person, although on some levels I found her interactions with and relationship with her cousin more compelling. Many aspects of Lisa's life are explored in detail - sometimes a little overdone - there are others that are glossed over, which at times can be a little unsatisfying. On the whole, though, as light entertainment, I found Pink Slip to be a lot better than many books out there and would recommend it without hesitation to anyone looking for a fun, distracting read.

This is the first book that I've read by Rita Ciresi, though I know that she's written a few. I liked this book, in fact it reminded me of Bridget Jones. Lonely, single, twenty something female who is looking for love and falls for her boss. I think that this book actually read better than Bridget Jones' Diary though. I found myself laughing out loud at some of her antics and the scene with the blow up security doll was a hoot!

Like several other readers however I felt that there were too many subplots. There was almost too much going on, for example, with her sister and brother-in-law, the whole background history of the holocaust with Eben, her lesbian boss and the story that revolved around her. While it was all interesting to read, I just don't think that it all came together too well.

The story itself centres on Lisa, a corporate employee who is from an Italian Catholic family and how she's looking for love in all of the wrong places. Her closest ally and confidant is her gay cousin Dodie, who has his own issues and ordeals to face. Lisa falls in love with her straight-laced boss, Eben Strauss. I just didn't see them as a couple though. Lisa is a very direct individual who has no trouble speaking her mind while Eben is the one who always follows the rules and doesn't like to stray from the norm. In any case, they begin to see each other and have to find a way to keep it from everyone at work. Eventually the problems between the two take their toll on the relationship and things go very wrong for everyone involved.

I think that the book would have been more interesting and humourous if we had seen more of Lisa and her interactions with her family. These were some of the best moments in the book. It was entertaining to see Lisa deal with the pull of the inescapable bond with her family and her more modern ideals of what a real 80's woman should be.

All in all, an enjoyable summer read.

This was a wonderful book. I would recommend it to anyone who likes Bridget Jones or the Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing. It went a little deeper that either of these books, and it made you really identify with the main character and get attached to her.

When I started reading this book I was amused, because I grew up in the very place where her novel takes place. She was dead on with the development of her characters and her descriptions of the different neighborhoods in Connecticut. What really struck me about the book was that it was closer to home then just geography. Anyone who has ever been a part of a large ethnic family knows that you have to take the good with the bad and that in the end you stick by your family even if they make you crazy. I could also relate for her search for love wherever she could find it. Having lost friends and loved ones to disease I could easily relate to how her character dealt with tragedy. Good going Ms. Ciresi !

I devoured this books in two days, finally staying up until 2 am to make sure "Lisar" and Eben made it through OK. Few books with a romantic plot can juggle the "real world" and the "romantic world" and yet still have a decent ending. Either it comes off as too bitter/edgy or as total mush. Pink Slip struck just the right balance for me. I can't wait for a sequel or at least another book from Rita Ciresi.

"Lisar" is a funny, witty, sad character with a lot of dimension. The idea of the 80's office with it's archaic technology and "new" philosophy of sexual harrassment was a wonderfully painted grey background to all of the colorful thoughts and beautifully written dialogue the author smoothly brush-stroked over this banal existence we all share of day-to-day corporate life. The contrast of her Italian mother and sister taking their spagetti-sauce stirring task so seriously, and the gay cousin throwing caution to the wind are masterfully written. This would be a great movie, and is very realistic. This is a great follow-up to Blue Italian. Can't wait to read more about Lisa in a sequel.