Customer Reviews

Switcheroo

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

Heroine: Average/Plump

Imagine the joy of finally seeing your children off to college and making big plans for rekindling the romance between your husband and you.

Imagine that your plans fall through time and again because your husband is so busy with work and late-night "meetings."

Imagine confronting the subject of those "meetings" and discovering to your great shock that she looks exactly like you . . . 10 years and 15 pounds ago.

Now imagine, just imagine, switching places with her!

What worked for me:

I love funny books, and "Switcheroo" certainly had some laugh-out-loud lines and memorable moments, which was very helpful in offsetting the altogether heart-breaking story of a marriage crumbling amidst a mid-life crisis.

As a wife myself, I could certainly sympathize with Sylvie Schiffer's hideous plight. But I was surprised to find how much pity I could dredge up for young look-a-like mistress Marla.

Size-wise Sylvie was slightly plump and feeling frumpy in the beginning of the story, but she shed some weight in order to be able to swap lives with Marla, who gained weight for the same reason. (Ordinarily fussing over losing 10 or 15 pounds and getting plastic surgery would bother me, but I think for the most part the author handled the situation in a rather tongue-in-cheek way and gave society a bit of a thumb-to-the-nose where its beauty standards are concerned.)

What didn't work for me:

Well, it's a modern-day faerie tale that uses science in place of magic, so let's face it . . . plausibility isn't really a factor here.

I hope to high heaven my grown children are never so unobservant or self-absorbed that they cannot tell the difference between me and a total stranger, especially when the stranger has a completely different personality and way of speaking than I do!

I wanted to like the husband, and I certainly pitied him, but the vindictive streak in me thinks he did not suffer nearly enough for the havoc he wreaked in the lives of Sylvie and Marla.

And you've gotta love a word processor's find/replace tool. I certainly think there must have been a last-minute plausibility boost made to the manuscript using one. How else can you explain a 29 year old woman constantly being referred to as a young girl and talking as though she's hanging out in her dormitory lounge? Really, I suspect that Marla was 19 right up until 2 minutes before this book hit the presses.

Overall:

Great bubble bath book for fans of screwball comedy, but be prepared to really work at suspending your disbelief while reading.

Warning: some coarse words, weight loss and plastic surgery scenarios.

If you liked "Switcheroo" you might also enjoy "Infernal Affairs", "Tara Road", "Good in Bed", "Jemima J.", "Having It and Eating It", "Princess Charming", "Welcome to Temptation", "Faking It", The "Stephanie Plum" mystery series, "Plum Girl", "Bridget Jones's Diary", "Last Chance Saloon", "Fast Women", and "Getting Over It".

Don't believe good reviews of this book. It was so simple-minded, so preposterous, and so STUPID at times, that I could not believe I was reading it all the way to the end. First of all, I won't get too much into it, but the story is totally unbelievable. Sylvie, a middle-aged housewife, finds out that her STUPID husband, Bob,(if you doubt that he is stupid, please read further) is cheating on her. She confronts his mistress, whose name is Marla, and finds that she is her EXACT TWIN, except 10 years younger, and therefore, skinnier and without wrinkles. Eventually Sylvie and Marla decide to go off to a spa together, get makeovers and plastic surgery so that they look like EACH OTHER (Bob was too stupid to ever notice that they looked exactly alike, if you can believe that) and then SWITCH PLACES, so Sylvie can get all the nookie she has been missing, and Marla can see what it's like to ACTUALLY BE MARRIED, since she's wanted to be married since the seventh grade. And NO ONE is the wiser. And then, of course, hilarity ensues.

Secondly, the conversations between characters are totally inane! Example: "God, I'm an a--hole. No, I'm the world's biggest a--hole." Bob stared out the window. "Think of the biggest a--hole in the world. Now raise it to the power of ten. That's me. I am a thousand a--holes." "Don't be so grandiose," John told him. "You're just a common garden-variety adulterer. I see them every day. Your d--- is running the company right now. I might as well be talking to it." Bob nodded morosely. "You're right." He looked down at his crotch. "He's the C.O.O." He sighed. "You know what I wish? I wish I could get him off the board of directors. Or just cut it off. Or better, I wish it would just fall off. It's ruining my life." John snorted. "Bob, eunuchs are not happy guys."..."I'd like to see the research on that," Bob said as John turned the car into the driveway....... If you enjoy that passage, there's plenty more where that came from, and worse. If not, sorry to torture you. Heed my advice and don't waste your time.

I've read the other reviews of this book and all I can say is:

Come on people! This is pop fiction NOT literature! Unrealistic? Sure! Simple minded? Right again! Bad grammar? Worse than my four year old grandson. But the bottom line is that it was fun! So what if you have to "suspend belief"?

I read this over a "do nothing" weekend and it was just what I needed. A dose of unreality. I'll agree the "Bestseller" and "First Wives Club" were better books, but I had a lot of fun with this one. As long as you don't take it seriously and have nothing else to do - enjoy!

I agree with the reviewer that said this book is a movie waiting to happen, but Hollywood will mess it up and unless they get Nora Ephron involved it will be a bad one.

If you like Olivia Goldsmith, don't even think about opening this book or your opinion of her talent will be radically altered. The premise is unbelievably bad, the characters and their dialogue are totally unrealistic and the writer surely cannot be Olivia Goldsmith. I wince to think that I read even 50 pages of this tripe before closing the book with a resounding thud.

a quick read which is pretty unrealistic, even with me trying to massage my "willing suspension of disbelief." only mildly entertaining, poorly developed characters, trite ending.

Sylvie Crandell Schiffer thinks she has everything, the perfect house, great husband, and great children. There is only one thing she wants, she wants to find romance again with her husband Bob. There is one problem, Bob has been acting distant lately and has had no time for her. It gets even worse when Bob gets Sylvie a car she does not want or need for her fortieth birthday.

The next day Sylvie dunks the car into the pool and Bob acts unconcerned. This gets Sylvie thinking and she realizes why Bob has been acting the way he does. He is having an affair.

Sylvie goes to confront Bob's mistress and finds something strange. The girl (Marla) could be a dead ringer for Sylvie. This gets Sylvie thinking and she comes up with a plan to get even with Bob and maybe-just maybe get Bob back-Switch Places with Marla.

The fun begins when Sylvie and Marla actually do switch and all of the adventures and misadventures they have being each other until the very last scene after Thanksgiving dinner.

I enjoyed Switcheroo by Olivia Goldsmith, but it wasn't as intelligent or as funny or insightful as Bestseller or some of her other books. This was quite a enjoyable book that was basically about 2 women who are with the same man, one as his wife (Slyvie)and one as his mistress (Marla)- both look the same only the wife looks 10 yrs older. Marlahas always wanted to be his wife and Slyvie wants to be his mistress, so they change themselves a bit and viola! swap places without the hapless man knowing anything about it..

Although this story asks you to suspend belief, as it is unrealistic in places, plus the main man is definately not the brightest fellow, it is still cute and worth reading if you have a Sunday afternoon free and you don't want a 'heavy' book.

I listened to this on tape and it didn't grab me the way BESTSELLER and FIRST WIVES' CLUB both did. I found the plot a bit too implausible, and without pages to flip back and forth, I began to lose track of the large cast of secondary characters. I finished the book but was definitely ready for it to end.

I thought "Bestseller" "First Wives Club" even "Fashionbaly Late" were interesting, funny, witty, etc...Switcheroo on the otherhand, it is hard to believe that Olivia Goldsmith actually wrote this piece of garbage. The dialogue and characters are so unrealistic (not to mention unlikable). It seems like Goldsmith wrote this book in hopes of having a screenplay created...it reminded me of a "Waiting to exhale" copycat. I kept hoping the book would get better, but sadly, it got worse! Don't waste your time on this book. Goldsmith seems like she is trying to inject humor and wit into the characters, but the entire book is flat, dull, and if you liked Goldsmith's other works, you will be thoroughly disappointed. Makes me wonder if Goldsmith is running on a deadline and selling out like one of her characters in "Bestseller".

This was a nail on the head look at mid life crisis with a bunch of kooks thrown in for fun...I found myself laughing out loud and hurrying to turn the next page. I am already casting the movie in my head and can't wait to see it on screen - the bedroom scene alone would be worth it....read this book if you are depressed!