Customer Reviews

why I'm like this: True Stories

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

When I was about three essays into reading WHY I'M LIKE THIS, I logged on to Amazon.com to see if I could order something else that Cynthia Kaplan had written. I was enjoying WHY I'M LIKE THIS that much. I was surprised to find so many negative or lukewarm reviews about the book at that time. As I continued to read the book, I kept waiting for the essay collection to go downhill, as the reviews had led me to believe it would, but that never happened. The essays in the collection were all winners, in my opinion.

So why was I so dazzled by this little-talked-about book? I was impressed by Kaplan's hilarious style and her ability -- and willingness -- to put herself and her family under the microscope in order to make some very honest observations about life. When she puts motherhood under the microscope, she is particularly frank. I found her essays on this subject to be some of the most honest and perceptive I've come across anywhere.

I highly recommend this collection of essays to anyone who enjoys reading writing that is genuinely funny, entertaining, and honest -- as opposed to writing that seeks to impress with its cleverness. I hope this is simply the first of many books to come from this perceptive and entertaining author.

Cynthia Kaplan's "Why I'm Like This" alternates hilarity (experiences at all-girl camp, being a waitress) with life's more sober times (putting her grandmother in a nursing home, having difficulty getting pregnant). Because of the mood swings (for lack of a better phrase) the book undergoes, it's sometimes a bumpy and uneven ride--but whether she's being serious or poking a proverbial elbow in your ribs, Kaplan is a talented writer who's fun to read. Some gems from the book:

One of the many pitfalls of working in a restaurant is that eventually you will wait on your peers. Or people who had been your peers before they became successful bankers and you became a waiter. First, there will be the requisite "Hi!" "Hi!" "How are you!?" "What are you doing?!" (What am I DOING? I think it's pretty clear: Good evening, my parents spent fifty thousand dollars on my education, would you like some more bread?) After the initial pleasantries are dispensed with, you will embarrass everyone with "Let me tell you about our specials."

* * *

On one of the last true blue days of August, when the oppressive midsummer haze had been blown away by some zippy cumulus clouds, opportunity knocked once more. At the counselors' pool party, [my crush] Jamie Karlin asked me to rub sunblock onto his back. He had the most unbelievable, fair, freckly skin. Had I this moment to live again, I would have offered to apply the sunblock later, in private, with my tongue.

* * *

Writing about her father's love of gadgets:

He was one of the first people to have a phone in his car. This was the late 1960s, decades before cellular technology, and it was essentially like having a shortwave radio in your car . . . At stoplights, my brother and I used to open the window, hold out the receiver to the driver of the car next to us, say, "It's for you," and collapse in hysterics.

* * *

Kaplan covers so many different topics I can't begin to cover them all here, but every baby boomer woman I know who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s will love this book. I even had a bathing suit like the one in which Kaplan appears on the cover--kindred spirits in more ways than one!

The review in New York Times Book Review, page 5 (or so) piqued my interest. Got a copy and read an essay or two right away. Read another over a bowl of cheerios before going to bed.

She's just a funny woman who tells a great and warm story. I've read them all now and find myself cracking up during the day, thinking about her stylish grandmother or her liitle penny pooper. I wish I could hear her take on my family.

This book was so much fun to read, that I finished it in 2 nights (and I'm not a fast reader). One reason I read it so quickly was because I could relate to almost every story she tells. Another was that it was laugh-out-loud-funny even when the subject matter was sad. I loved that she was honest about herself and the experiences most of us have gone through ourselves, whether it be her painful adolescence, her struggles with infertility, or how her newborn affected her marital relationship. It's not just that it was an extremely well written memoir with descriptions of people and places that took you into her world and held you there until the story was over, but also that it was just so enjoyable to read!

Kaplan's personal stories blend autobiography and storytelling drama: Why I'm Like This is very highly recommended reading because the stories read like well crafted fiction and paint vivid portraits of family characters, yet the first person insights threaded through them are entirely autobiographical, exposing Kaplan's life and youth. A fine achievement, Why I'm Like This will reach a wide and appreciative audience.

Actress/author Cynthia Kaplan takes us on a hilarious and uncensored journey into her sometimes hopelessly bungled world populated by pill-popping therapists, eccentric grandmothers, her tyrannical 1yo son - and somehow manages to find a deeper meaning to life, power, and the search for contentment.

Wow, this book was excellent. I loved it as much as I loved "Running with Scissors" and that says a lot. Perhaps it's because I'm just as neurotic as she is (I've been known to fear "mountain men" from time to time), or maybe it's because this book is just extemely heartfelt and entertaining. It's totally worth a read.

_Why I'm Like This_ is a collection of personal essays by actress/writer Cynthia Kaplan. The subject matter is completely Kaplan's life, although, of course the stories encompass greater themes (growing older, motherhood, self-esteem, etc.). Throughout the book, we meet Kaplan as a child, Kaplan as a teenager, Kaplan in college, and Kaplan as an adult. She covers a multitude of subjects, ranging from the comical (Kaplan dealing with the unglamorous side of being an actor: being a waiter) to the heartbreaking (the incredible difficulty of putting a loved one in a nursing home and watching their decline). She is a good writer, although it is easy to detect a bit of arrogance in her writing. She is also very skilled at being funny and at always portraying her life from her unique perspective (as opposed to falling into a trap of portraying a typical scenario in a typical way). Kaplan also has a knack for capturing life events perfectly, so that it is easy to imagine experiencing something yourself, even if you have yet to experience to event (her essay on getting pregnant was especially vivid to me - another reviewer noted that Kaplan went over the top with this one, but I disagree - it goes into detail about fertility treatment, but I never once felt that it was too much; it was simply true to life).

There is no overall theme to this collection, except that they are Kaplan's life stories. There is also no lesson to be learned or bigger point to be made, which I liked very much, as the stories stand on their own. There are a lot of smaller themes that are consistent throughout the story, however. Also, I thought that it may be difficult for a reader to like this book if he or she could not identify or empathize with Kaplan's point of view. I found many of her experiences hilarious because I often act that way myself, have the same thoughts, etc. If a reader does not have this insight, or is unable to imagine it, he or she might find be unable to appreciate its finer points and its humor. Overally, however, I would say that this is a highly entertaining window into someone's daily existence.

I had never heard of Kaplan before I picked up this book and decided to buy it based on the title alone. Right away, Kaplan's writing and tone was something I could identify with. She has a real wit and talent for turning the mundane into the laugh-out-loud funny. In fact, I just came searching this site to see if there was anything else of her's I could read. I highly recommend this book. My friend is borrowing it from me at the moment and I can't wait for her to return it as I'm anxious for my second read.

Acutely insightful, hilarious, profound. I find myself quoting lines from this book all the time.

It's rare that a writer can make me laugh again and again just thinking of a line. "...I went out and bought myself a new hat." "...he fell asleep on the bench with a piece of toast in his hand" "this hand-holder," etc. Cynthia Kaplan is one of those rare few.

As I did with David Sedaris when I first became aware of him, and Patrick Dennis, when they re-issued Little Me, Why I'm Like This is one of those comic gems that I find myself giving as a gift to people I really like.

I hope she writes another book. Soon.