Customer Reviews

Wonder Spot

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(17)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

Bank has repeated her successful formula from "The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing" with stories of a female protagonist moving from teen years to adulthood. Let me first say that she is one of the freshest voices writing today. What is so disappointing about "The Wonder Spot" though is that the characters are so similar, they even hold the same jobs depicted in Girls Guide- editorial assistant, advertising; the family dynamics are the same, the setting is the same (Philly suburbs and NYC) but the magic Bank wove in Girls Guide with her succinct, brilliant sentences that one paused to read over and over have vanished to be replaced by longer less significant sentences (perhaps to go along with a longer book?)The magic is not there this time. While I read the Wonder Spot straight through in one reading, it doesn't have the same power, longing, sense of loss and realization that Girls Guide did. If you have not read anything by Bank, treat yourself to Girls Guide rather than this work, or you will wonder what all the fuss was about. How disapppointing that in the 5+ years that have elapsed since Bank wrote her first work, she was unable to do more with her second work than repeat formula and somehow, not make it work this time. This book depressed me. Girls Guide left one feeling the full strength of possibility.

I am so surprised by some of the negative reviews. This book is certainly not meant to uncover any great mysteries or make a grand pronouncement about the meaning of life. I loved this book for its humor and reality.

Ms. Bank completely captured what it's like to be a somewhat insecure woman, and how those feelings of insecurity change as you get older. Sophie is so much like myself and people I know, and such a funny and true voice. I think women from the East Coast (particularly Jewish) will especially appreciate Sophie and her sense of humor. Any fans of "Girls Guide", or Susan Isaacs and Elaine Kagan, are sure to love this book. I wish I hadn't read it so fast because I already miss Sophie. I hope Ms. Bank's next book comes sooner than 6 years from now.

This is not a book that belongs in the dreadful genre known as "chick lit." And what a relief that is! Sophie Applebaum never mentions "Manolo" or "Jimmy Choo" --- her roommate practically has to torture her to buy the used evening dress that might give her exquisite power over men. "I looked at myself for a long time," Bank writes of Sophie trying that dress on, "and I remember it as one of the only times in my life when I saw myself as beautiful." Is there one of us --- man or woman --- who can't relate?

She wears that dress three times. The last time, she meets an ex-boyfriend. She was glad she was wearing the dress; it put extra emotion in his voice when he asked if she remembered him. She had been waiting for this moment: "I'd pictured turning my back to him or slapping his face or pretending that I couldn't quite place him." And then, this killer line: "I'd had so many lovers since him, my first, and all of them so much more memorable." And then, the real killer line, the truth: "But when our eyes met and his look asked if I remembered him, my look answered that it did."

May I simply say: "Wow."

Out of college, and into the struggling years. A job happens, and an office, and the inevitable problems of people getting shoved into roles. But it gets better with the boyfriend --- could Sophie be Getting Somewhere?

New story. Shift. Her brother has the Girlfriend from Hell, and doesn't see it. New story. Shift. Her father dies, and she's living, with her mother, at home. There's a weekend in the country with her oldest friend and Matthew, her friend's friend, and a set of complications that give Sophie hope and end a friendship. New story. Shift. There's Bobby Guest, cloudy and lost, and, ultimately, not really available --- we've all had our Bobbys. New story. Shift. Her mother has a boyfriend, married, from her youth; family stories wrestle with last chance romance. A neurologist appears; he sure seems like The One. Her grandmother --- is this ironic? --- has a stroke. And dies. New story. Shift....

And at this point --- we're close to the end now --- you either care passionately about Sophie or wonder what all the fuss is about. Me, I cared. Not because Sophie is such an amazing woman, but because she's not. She's a good person, but not a great one, smart but no genius, destined never to achieve anything major. There are lots of women (and men) like that, moving through life, not quite getting anywhere, and if you have a heart, you root for them --- you want them to wrap their fists around something they can hold on to. Like a husband, a wife: a lasting commitment that actually lasts.

Of course they can never put those dreams into words, even in the middle of the night. That's too uncool, especially in Manhattan. But those are the dreams in back of all the clever talk, and Melissa Bank has you leaning in, hoping someone will whisper them to Sophie and she can say them right back. And all of that is between the lines, because Melissa Bank --- one of our sassiest, most clever writers --- is good enough to pull that off.

"The Wonder Spot" is a book at once funny and sad, irritating and satisfying. A book like life. And, in many places, a book that merges with life, that becomes life. Which is to say: a very good book indeed.

--- Jesse Kornbluth/HeadButler.com

Melissa Bank's second book-a novel, a book of linked stories-may disappoint some fans of A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, but as a writer she has gone far deeper in her new book, The Wonder Spot. The wit is still there, the graceful prose, the deep empathy one feels for the main character, Sophie Applebaum. But in The Wonder Spot Bank shows new depths and nuances and shadows. She doesn't hide from sadness or loneliness or failure with her lightning wit-and her canvas in The Wonder Spot is broader. She deals with death and religion; with issues of class and money; with even deeper themes of identity and appearance in conflict with character and integrity that is nearly Jamesian. She is strong and smart and funny, but she is also no longer afraid to be vulnerable. Second books-especially after huge first successes-are tough, but Melissa Bank has far exceeded even our most generous expectations. She has written an important and brilliant new book.

I simply loved this book. I can see why it might not have a very broad appeal, as it is firmly rooted in a particular culture and a particular deconstruction of that culture. So, it might not be everyone's cup of tea.

It's a book about feelings more than action, relationships and exquisitely drawn characters more than high drama. It's warm and real and honest. Bank can take a seemingly mundane topic, like a Bat Mitvah or a micro-managing boss, and find a wealth of subtle drama, hypocrisy, and humor there. Her character observations are spot on, her descriptions are captivating, and her narrator's poetic sarcasm is infectious.

It is very similar to The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing, but this book made a deeper impression on me for some reason. Perhaps the subject matter was relateable for me personally. Or perhaps Sophie's character is infused with a touch more vulnerability. Whatever the reason, I enjoyed it immensely and reccomend it highly.

It has all the makings of a great chick lit novel, like Melissa Bank's first. But something is missing in The Wonder Spot. Maybe I just didn't connect with the main character. Maybe it's because she reminded me too much of Jane, the beloved heroine of "The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing" (Bank's wonderfully written debut novel). I would highly recommend reading that one first. This one was a nice read, but didn't leave me filled with any wonderment.

This book is in a lot of ways similiar to the 'Girls Guide..' but I assume that if you liked the first one and want to read the second, you are looking for something that is going to be similiar. The writing is clever and the characters relatable. I laughed out loud throughout the book and was sad when I reached the end because I could have kept on reading. I dont know why there are people that gave such low scores for this book because I truly enjoyed reading it as much as Bank's first and I think this will be one that I read again. I suggest reading it for sure instead of letting bad reviews sway you, thats what I decided to do and I am glad that I did!!

I realize "brave" may seem like a wierd adjective to describe a book about a perfectly normal, middle-class Jewish girl who's searching for love and career satisfaction in the big city. After all, the young-New-Yorker-coming-of-age tale is neither a novel concept nor a notable departure from the themes explored in Melissa Bank's much loved first book, The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing. But, then again, the coming-of-age theme is one that invites retelling and rereading, as it can touch on so many important themes that are central to normal lives - hope, fear, disappointment, and often, the redemption that is granted when you accept life's limitations. And it's that the coming of age of our very ordinary protagonist, Sophie, is so, well, normal, that makes this book lovely and different. Both the author and Sophie lack pretension or any aspiration to hipness, which allows us as readers to relax and become completely absorbed in the book, without feeling we are merely glimpsing into the elitist world so often constructed in stories of young and upwardly mobile Manhattan. Our heroine does not wildly dive into unknown situations or relationships but rather constantly holds back with a caution that preserves her as much as it limits her. This particular element of her character was very well developed. It also kept the book from reaching into sensationalist experiences to grab our attention - there are no bouts of sexual misadventure, no sordid drug and booze binges, no slumming on the wild side by a middle class girl. In this confessional, scandal-obsessed culture, reading about a young woman possessing any restraint at all was refreshing.

What also makes Sophie Applebaum refreshing is a guilelessness that nearly borders on simplicity - she could not be a social climber if she tried. From her teenage years in suburban Philadelphia to college, where she found herself often playing second fiddle to a charismatic friend, to her post-college days trying to navigate the notoriously prickly Manhattan worlds of publishing, apartment dwelling, and dating, Sophie responds to these pressures with the same amount of ambiguity, self-deprecation, and humour that she does her relationships with her ever-present immediate family and her two amusingly trying Jewish grandmothers. This book left me with an optimistic feeling, that, as illustrated by Sophie, there is something resolutely good and special about being an ordinary person just doing your best in life.

This is a book where the reviews are very, very mixed. On most mixed review books people seem to either love it or hate it. Here there's a third category of "it's OK, not great, but definitely not terrible, it's OK." I fall into the love it category.

I'm male, not a young girl like Sophie. But my daughter just moved to live in New York City. My daughter, like Sophie, has had to live in a world she never knew. (New York certainly fits into that category.) They both have had to begin to understand about aging, even the death of close relatives. The schoolgirl activities, loves, and small time life have been replaced with other, more adult past times.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into putting my own situation into Sophies, but a few laughs, a few tears and I enjoyed the book very much.

I guess I'm in the minority in that I loved this book. Maybe because I live in NYC, where the story is set, I had such a clear picture in my mind while following Sophie Applebaum around Manhattan, to the Hamptons, Berkshires, Pennsylvania, the Bronx, etc. Sophie is a likeable yet insecure character. I was rooting for her to find happiness in her work and love. I'm sure there were similarities to 'Girls Guide to Hunting & Fishing', which I read years ago, but it's been so long that I didn't notice. Melissa Bank is a talented, witty writer and I hope there's more to come from her.