Customer Reviews

Ringing for You: A Love Story with Interruptions

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

 

 

Intrigued by the VOGUE magazine review, comparing this book to Bridget Jones' Diary and Jane Austen, I began this book with pleasant anticipation. I'd suffered through a bad stint working as an over-qualified receptionist at a small-town newspaper and was looking forward to a witty romp through the world of pompous executives, witchy office managers, strange gnomes from accounting, etc. I love Jane Austen, and Bridget Jones' Diary was one of the funniest new novels of the 90's so Ringing For You seemed promising.

What an abject disappointment. The narrator, a receptionist, writes about her life and loves as she sits at her desk at work. This cute plot device wears thin almost immediately due to the constant travel back and forth in time and place along a space-time continuum apparent only to the author as the receptionist recounts her exploits. To compound this problem, the author tries to affect a clever conceit whereby the receptionist is completely confused to the point of brain-death over every aspect of her messed-up life one minute, yet in the next she can smugly quote Proust and wax profoundly on subjects of wonderful complexity. Far from making the receptionist a well-rounded modern woman, the heroine appears schizophrenic!

The worst aspect of this book is that the plot devices above, as well as the cutesy little technique of using WingDing symbols to represent events that occur in the course of the receptionist's day (think Highlights) do not obscure the fact that the writing never opens up to allow you into the characters, the place or even the general vicinity of the book. I never cared about the protagonist nor any of the supporting cast. The entire reading experience was superficial and trite. The height of my emotional experience was vaguely wondering if the receptionist would end up with the MWMM or her boyfriend. I shut the book at its end and have never once wondered what was happening now to any of the people in it.

This book seems to have been hacked together as a way to capitolize on the popularity of Bridget Jones' Diary. Read the real thing and skip this trumped-up attempt to introduce Jane Austen to WingDings. Better yet, go find your old copy of Persuasion and dig in.

When the heroine of this book claims that you may recognize some of the people in it by thier descriptions, she was right!! There was so much of myself in her I felt like we were sisters from the first page. I thought the book was funny, thoughtful, and yes - a little crazy at times...exactly like we all are. The book jumps around and the funny symbols for phone calls and packages and the MWMM can get a bit tiresome...but overall...the voice is a clever and engaging one. I read this book over the weekend...a perfect way to read it...in a relaxed, casual atmosphere. Enjoy!

While, I don't think Ms. Forrester has written the great British novel here, I think it is an intelligent and, at times, witty book. Yes, it can be irritating with it's cutesy fonts and initials, but she makes some good observations here. One can see her writing style emerging and there is a definite voice. I think we should keep a watch out for future books from this author. Once she masters some character development, she could be a force to reckon with. I found the novel fun even if the ending was a little unsatisfying. I say give it a chance.

I feel especially priveledged to write this review as I read this book while I was working at the same place as the author wrote from. It sounds totally implausable and I didn't believe it myself until I found a bullitin board with press clippings of Prince Phillip's visit in the office. What the real place is called is the Institute of Materials and I worked there for three months while working abroad with a student work permit in Britain (I'm American). She brilliantly contained the decisively strange place that the Institute of Materials is. I found it absolutely bizarre and I'm glad that I'm not the only one, as I thought it was all of Britain that is like that. I found her novel to portray something original (then again, I have refused to read Bridgit Jones' Diary) and with true intelligence. It may be that I was moved by the sheer coincidence of the novel, as I am also fresh out of college and the Institute was my first job. Nevertheless, she portrayed the frustration of the exploited excessively-intelligent temp with wit that I fear I could not.

This is a book for the intelligent among us. Being a temp sucks with such a biterness that I cannot express, but she can and I depend upon her for that. Much like a drugged out rocker to Stairway to Heaven, this book saw me through some rough times. (I kept trying to tell the people at the Institute, "No seriously there's this book about the Institute and she talks about Paul and Mike - listen to me" but they didn't because the English are like that.) Basically, this is a book for the frustrated, under appreciated, intelligent young women with awful temp assignments as receptionists or what not and should be appreciated as such. In addition, its a really fun, easy read.

I was attracted to this book's subject about a receptionist who writes a novel during work hours. As a receptionist myself, who has also considered writing a novel during my work hours, I was eager to hear what she had to say. It turns out, exactly what I had hoped she would say! As a temporary position, her job gives her a chance to tell the story of her quirky days, her steamy relationships and her humerous insights into the human condition, inside and out of the office. The book becomes interactive with the reader as she lets us know when she needs to pause to answer the phone, sign for a package, etc., using symbols which quickly become crucial to understanding her world. She is another young person who is capable of so much more than the job she is stuck with, and her painfully true descriptions of the office and her relationship to it helped me to see the humor in my own position. She became my best friend and I was sad for her to leave me when the I finshed the book. Anouchka Grose Forrester is a fun and energetic writer, perfect for the gen-x crowd and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Don't believe those reviews that say the book is unfunny-- this short read is both witty and intelligent. I laughed out loud on several instances. It's a great weekend indulgence.

The notion of a receptionist writing a novel as she sits around waiting for the phone to ring and packages to arrive isn't a bad premise for a smart romantic comedy. Unfortunately, Forrester fails to deliver any kind of interesting plot, nor does she offer up any startling insights into the role of a receptionist. The book starts out peppered with little icons indicating telephone, package and visitor interruptions--a cute conceit that even the author realizes wears thin as the book goes on. The people she works for/with, start as mysteries, and more or less end that way, aside from one highly predictable character. The main subject of the receptionist's typing is her confusion about an affair she's having with a weird courier who doesn't seem to like her that much, and her indecision over what to do with her agreeable, if unsexy, boyfriend. There is a modicum of pleasure to be scraped from this, but all in all, the writing is rather ordinary, not particularly witty, and the chronology of the events in the book is somewhat confusing. The whole effort struck me as a weak attempt to follow in the wake of the success of Bridget Jones Diary.

Wow...this book is SO not what the cover says. It looks (and the blurb on the back concurs) like it should be a light read, much like Bridget Jone's Diary.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

I enjoyed this book immensely, although when I started, I was a bit annoyed because it seemed so shallow. It wasn't until I was about 70 pages in that I realized that it was NOT a light book; rather, it is a fairly accurate portrait of a realistic woman.

When I first started reading this book, I thought it was great. It was cute & funny, & I felt like I could relate to the main character. But as the book went on, the story got boring & senseless. All in all not a bad read, but the last 50 pages or so might put you to sleep.

I bought this book on a whim because to me, it looked like a "poplit" sort of book; something light, airy, and good to read when you don't want to think too deeply.

While "Ringing" does have some interesting points, it's been marketed to completely the wrong audience. The prose are mostly cynical and brooding, which, while interesting, is drawn away from by the icons throughout it as well as the general tone of the description and cover. It looks like something lighthearted and simple, while really it is much more heavy -- a slice-of-life look at a life that isn't very happy or inviting. The protagonist is a woman who isn't fond of her job and is looking forward to moving onto something more impressive; doesn't care much for her boyfriend and carries on a side relationship with an unpredictable man who does't want her writing about him in her 'novel'; and generally views everyone around her with a maudlin and cynical eye.

Comparing it to "Bridget Jones" is unfair, because the story itself isn't really Jones-esque -- the way it's packaged, however, is. This is not a happy book, this is not a cheerful book, and it will probably just annoy you if you approach it from that perspective. If you're looking for some rich, irony-heavy prose and don't mind it being interrupted by odd little pictures of telephones here and there, this is a pretty decent book.