Customer Reviews

Remind Me Again Why I Married You

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I picked up this book as something to read on vacation, and didn't put it together with Pink Slip until about 3/4 of the way through the book. I would agree with another reviewer and say that if you are reading this book to compare it to Pink Slip, you probably will be disappointed. Compare your life now to your life when you met/fell in love/married your spouse? Not really as thrilling is it? This book is all about the subtleties of what goes on in a marriage - what's left unsaid, what's taken for granted, and just all of the little things, in general, that go into being a married couple. There are really days when a jacket left over a chair is like a slap in the face. Every once in a while you need a little reminder of why you are together, and I think that is what this book is all about. It's not glamorous, or filled with hilarious characters, or jam-packed withe exciting moments - but I believe that was intentional. Marriage, once you've settled in, isn't any of those things. It's about two people, living day-to-day, attempting to remember what-it's-all-about-anyway. This book succeeds in its depiction of those finer points.

It may have resonated with me, in particular, because I have been married the same length of time Lisa and Eben have, live in the same area of NY, and am also dealing with infertility. It was as if someone followed my husband and I around, then wrote a book about us. It was actually a little spooky!

Two problems kept this book from living up or past "Pink Slip". As other reviewers have mentioned, the omission of just about every wacky secondary character in "Pink Slip" greatly weakened the book. Lisa's family, mainly. Since Ebb was working at the same place as he was when we met him, I couldn't help but hope that we'd bump into Peggy or Hook again, just anyone to break up the relentless focus on Ebb-Lisa/Lisa-Ebb. However, stereotypical they were, those former characters added, not detracted, from "Pink Slip." Now with the two protagonists having marital trouble and difficulty communicating, other less serious characters would have been a real treat.

I was also disappointed that Lisa's potential agent made an intriguing appearance than disappeared for pages and pages, while I slogged on through many references and jokes about bodily functions/sex. Like in the movies, it always seems that the heroine ultimately has to choose between a career and taking care of a family full-time. While Lisa still seemed determined to write, her potential career as a novelist seemed to just fizzle out in the last few pages. I was hoping against hope that she'd actually publish her book, but alas, the author left that up in the air. How nice it would be to see a book/movie/tv show where the female protagonist stayed true to her dreams that didn't necessarily involve romance. Oh well.

What is original about Rita Ciresi is she's not only funny and honest, but she's masterful at her craft. Her latest book is more literature than a beach read, so if you want something candy-coated, this is not the book for you. However, I believe Ciresi's writing continues to be thoughtful and provoking, and stops to make you think about life and the woman's place in it.

This book *is* different than Pink Slip, although I think in a good way. The main character has grown up and now faces new challenges, including discovering her niche in the world and what marriage is really about. Remind Me Again is intelligent, funny, a good read. You'll enjoy it.

Rita Ciresi's continuation of _Pink Slip_ will undoubtedly be met with fanfare. The first novel where we saw Lisa struggle to grow up and all that entails has transported us into the future, five years later. The ending of the first novel felt abrupt to me so starting up again five years later was frustrating. As I was reading _Remind Me Again Why I Married You_, I tried to remember why I liked the first novel so much. (All the honesty, the relationships between Lisa and her family, and Eb's endearing but goofy ways) Well, the honesty remains but it didn't reach me the same, kind of like seeing it everyday for five years. Gone are the family members who would have been a great resource for exploring married life. It was like Lisa and Eben were on their own. I miss the old characters. Eb's quirky traits just seem so middle-aged here. The honesty was here but somehow not a revealing.

The book is told in alternating voices between Lisa and Eben. I like the idea of that but it wasn't pulled off completely. Lisa had so much moxy and life in Pink Slip that she seems to have sold out here. Maybe that is the intent. Not once did Lisa and Eben show that they grew to love each other. I was disappointed but there's the honesty card coming up again. Not once did I think about not completing the book. I wanted to see where Rita was headed. I may not like the transportation but the trip was worth it. Just because the story isn't what I wanted it to be, Rita Ciresi stayed true to what her story for Eben and Lisa was.

I have always enjoyed Rita Ciresi's work. Her characters seem so real because she tells us about the ordinary things they do - like forget to take out the trash, swear, and argue about everyday stuff.
The novel Pink Slip, which introduced us to Eben and Lisa, got me hooked and I rushed out to purchase the follow up. In this book, we learn about married life through both partners' eyes. It's fun to get to know Ebb better and see how Lisa's coping with all that life has handed her. We love to hear about her novel and her exploits. We are glad to know that she hasn't given up her dreams of becoming a writer. She is also hoping to become a mother again. The couple's internal and external struggles are so real to the reader, we can not help rooting for them.
The one thing this story lacks is reference to Lisa's family; her mom and sister are not mentioned and I couldn't help but wonder how they fit in to the life of Lisa and Ebb and Danny. I would reccomend this book to anyone who enjoys a good story with heart. You'll enjoy this one about people who are flawed, but trying to do their best.

I've read the "Pink Slip" by the same author and loved it, so I looked for another book by Rita Ciresi. I found this one but the reader reviews were mixed. I went ahead and bought it any way and finished it in a week. What a great book! It really shows the emotional struggles that go through the minds of a married couple -alternating between the husband and wife, but in a truly loving way. I loved the book! I guess the mixed reviews came from - my guess - comparing this book to "Pink Slip". But the two are not comparable! One book deals with two people falling in love that have many differences - backgrounds, religion, age, careers, families, etc. - and how they are able to overcome them, and the second book (which is a sequel) shows how they cope with married life.
Excellent book, one of my favorites!

Gifted writer Rita Ciresi blends heartbreak with hilarity as she revisits (5 yrs later) the characters of Pink Slip, her last novel. Lisa and Eban, now with a son, do the marriage dance, trying to answer the question that has plagued husbands and wives since the beginning of time: Okay, after marriage, then what?

Tho' it's a sequel, it's not Pink Slip II, and some readers expecting more antics from the colorful secondary characters have been disappointed, judging by earlier reviews (though the agents--stylish realtor Cynthia Farquahar and young hotshot literary agent "Aye Aye"--are great minor characters). The focus is pretty exclusively on Lisa and Ebb and the trials and tribulations of married life, but especially on the conflict between Lisa the (aspiring) novelist and Lisa the disgruntled hausfrau and corporate wife. Without being coyly metafictional, it's also about the dilemma any fiction writer faces in "stealing"--and altering--material from real life. How much of the intesely private Ebb should wind up in Lisa's novel, _I'm Sorry, This is My Life_? The book is also about the way the droll imagination of Lisa-the-novelist recasts real-life events, and deepens and darkens her various discontents.

The events that Lisa is tempted to fictionalize--and that disrupt her writing--are recounted with the verve and wit you can count on from Ciresi: the struggle to get pregnant for a second time, the ordeal of buying a new house, the mundane problem of coping with a sick toddler in winter. The book is very carefully plotted. The alternating Ebb and Lisa sections complement each other nicely. If Ebb doesn't always seem to think and behave in ways you'd expect of a high-level executive at a major pharmaceutical firm, he's a well-rounded, engaging character and a great foil to Lisa.

Bottom line: If you approach this book with too many preconceptions or expectations based on Pink Slip, you might be disappointed. It's a more complex, less outrageous book, with a more ambiguous ending. But Lisa's voice is just as funny and simpatico, it's a winning story, and I found it every bit as enjoyable.

Forget spies, murders, international conspiracy plots, political thrillers, true kidnap stories...and enter the world of one desperate houswife ( with due credit to the tv soap title).
She is a stay at home mother, a closet writer, a wife who says that she 'plotz'ed' when she has an orgasm.
He is your typical suit, growing older, having fantasies about comely real estate agents, is often constipated and wears awful ties.
In short these are you two average Joe's who lead Average Joe lives...with a lot of humour, pathos and that magic inredient which the author manages to get across - relatability. Anyone who is a post 30's mom, tired corporate wife, desperately trying to conceive, wannabe romance writers ...must read this one !

Ciresi's latest novel is just as good as the last. The novel has snappy and laugh-out-loud dialogue, that keeps the story moving. "Remind Me Again Why I Married You" also alternates narrators; switching easily between two totally opposite characters. It is interesting to see their different takes on the current situation. This book, however, is not for people who cannot laugh at bodily-function jokes!