A Good Fall: stories

I really enjoyed this collection of short stories. Very moving, but pain-filled. Loyalty to Chinese culture rubs uncomfortably up against American culture in many of the stories.

In the short story In the Crossfire, a young man invites his mother from China to stay for two months with him and his wife. Neither woman can stand the other, and Tian is caught in the middle, unable to bear hurting either and yet resigned to watching his wife Connie withdraw from him and their relationship.

p. 98: "'Mom, you don't get it. This is my home and you shouldn't interfere with my schedule.'

'What did you say? Sure, this is your home, but who are you? You're my son, aren't you!'"

p. 116: "That night Connie asked Tian to share the master bedroom with her, but he wouldn't saying they musn't nettle his mother from now on. He felt sad, afraid that Meifen might change her mind. He remembered that when he was taking the entrance exam fourteen years back, his parents had stood in the rain under a shared umbrella, waiting for him with a lunch tin, sodas, and tangerines wrapped in a handkerchief. They each had half a shoulder soaked through. Oh, never could he forget their anxious faces. A surge of gratitude drove him to the brink of tears. If only he could speak freely to them again."

Chasing Harry Winston

You'd think that after a smart novel like The Devil Wears Prada, one that made millions of dollars for everyone involved, the publishers would vigilantly edit whatever Weisberger came out with next. I can only imagine that either her publishers lazily retreated and let her reputation sell the book, or that her ego stood in the way of the editing process. Either way, somebody dropped the ball.

Weisberger's tale involves three women seeking love and husbands as they approach their 30th birthdays. One is too promiscuous, one is too monogamous, and the third doesn't love the man she's with. Like Goldilocks and the Three Bears, one's too hot, one too cold and so on...

The book is too long, too shallow, and it's crowded with too many plotlines, men and inexplicable plot meanderings--such as these beauties...

p. 196-197: Two characters argue for 2 whole pages about one character's penchant for popular chick lit, detailing such works as Something Borrowed, Something Blue, Bridget Jones's Diary and The Nanny Diaries.

p. 247: One character leaves her OB-GYN exam (which has NOTHING to do with the plot):
"After dressing, Emmy jumped on the 4 train to Union Square. She figured on a brisk walk directly home to shower--something she always felt compelled to do after the K-Y-heavy exams--but as she exited the subway at Fourteenth and Broadway she found herself heading directly toward Leigh and Adriana's building. With Leigh's breakup only a week old and Adriana's newfound commitment to work, she figured at least one of them had to be home, sulking or writing or both, but the doorman shook his head [...] By the time she reached her building and trudged up the five flights of stairs, she was drenched from head to toe: her hair from the freezing rain, her feet from the filthy slush, and her ladyparts from the overzealous application of medical-grade lube."
Isn't it terrible?-- the overuse of the word "directly," the fact that this does nothing to advance the plot and finally, it's not even well-written!

The Manny

I loved this book. Loved it the way that you love a croissant when you're biting into its warm crispy outer layers--you fully enjoy the moment, but it's not meant to satisfy you in the long run.
A high-powered corporate journalist with two children is getting fed up. For as many hours as she works, her lawyer husband is around even less. Her girls are handling everything ok, but her son is retreating further into his shell every day. To her staff of housekeeper, drivers and nanny, she adds a young graduate student to act as her son's "manny."
It's totally unrealistic except in its descriptions of the insane lifestyles led by the rich in America. The draw of the book is observing the differences between "them" and "us," so the lack of real emotion is not too noticeable.