Rating: 
Summary: unrealized potential
Review: Steve Martin has mastered his presence on TV and film, but writing is another story. He has potential to be funny, but you only see it in little accidental bits and pieces in this novel.Mirabelle is a shopgirl for gloves in LA. she is bored with life. she has a sort-of boyfriend named Jeremy. She seems to be on Prozac. She meets a rich older guy. Etc. None of the characters are that well-developed and you can't really like them. I can see this being a good movie because the actors could inject some life into the characters but it was a plodding slow book. Maybe it would have been better if Martin had written about a guy --- he didn't seem to get very much about young urban women and it shows. He does have potential and maybe he'll realize it and an improved writing style in his next venture.
Rating: 
Summary: Shopgirl finds love and herself
Review: Steve Martin's first foray into fiction is an ever so slight little gem called Shopgirl. Mirabelle is the novella's protagonist, a full-time Shopgirl at Nieman's glove counter and part-time artist. Her two relationships in the story involve young, broke, and dumb Jeremy (who considers their running into each other at a laundromat their second date) and millionaire Ray Porter who is relationally immature in his own ways. In only 130 pages, Martin shows quite an evolution in all major characters and a fabulous stagnation in sex-starved supporting character Lisa. Martin has carefully woven wonderfully humorous insights into each of the characters, making them interesting and likeable, even when they sometimes aren't. I hope this is the first of more fine fiction from a clearly talented man.
Rating: 
Summary: Pure Joy
Review: I bought this book not only because the cover caught my eye,
but because of the story itself. I read this book in a few hours and simply enjoyed every minute of it. It is pure joy.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Work
Review: Shop Girl is an impressive work of fiction by Steve Martin. He is clearly a brilliant man, and an effective, powerful writer. This book explores the complexities of human relationships -- it dares to bring to the surface difficult questions about what attracts people to eachother, and how often times people seek in others what they are missing in themselves.
The protagonist, Mirabelle, was an insecure, somewhat neurotic woman working in a department store while trying to carry out her true passion, being an artist. Ray Porter, a successful, weathly business man, spent two years courting Mirabelle, though never willingly committing himself to her. He never quite understood what sustained his attraction to her, though I believe it was simply that she fulfilled his need to take care of someone. And he fulfilled her need to be cared about.
I don't want to give much away, but this is a satisfying, complex, quick, yet powerful book. Highly recommended. I hope there are more books by Steve Martin on the way of this calibre.
Rating:
Summary: Martin get inside a woman's mind
Review: I am amazed by the style and ease that Steve Martin writes. He has captured the emotional depth of the protagonist, a depressed woman. Martin also captures the essence of those around her, an immature man and a pair of narcissistic opportunists. It makes you wonder if there is a part of each character in the author himself.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect!
Review: What a beautiful charecter study this is! I loved every word of it. As I was reading it, I found myself stopping every once in awhile just to let it all sink in and smile at Steve Martin's words. This book is a treasure and I look forward to reading more works of this kind by him.
Rating:
Summary: Should write a novel
Review: Steve Martin is an excellent writer, and clearly an inelligent, deep man. This was a fantastic story about human relationships, and what draws certain types of people to others. It is about intrinsic needs to help, and be helped, and about healthy versus unhealthy relationships.
In this particular short story -- light on pages but not on depth of character -- a young woman named Mirabelle, who considers herself an artist, yet continues to take on mundane, mindless work, falls in love with an older man who is kind of using her to fulfil his own needs. Their relationship goes through a cycle, where both parties learn a great deal about themselves, and why they were drawn together in the first place --one needing to be cared for, the other, needing to nurture and to care for someone.
This rather unhealthy relationship led both to fulfillment ultimately, as well as a deeper self-awareness. Other characters weave throughout the book, and teach lessons as well. This is an excellent story, very entertaining, and well written. I highly recommend it, and hope Steve Martin continues on a succesful fiction writing path.
Rating:
Summary: A great first novella
Review: This book was given to me by a dear friend and
now I am running out and getting copies for
other people. A short story, yet one that is
compelling and hits home on several levels.
Mirabelle comes alive and into the imagination
nearly from the first few pages and I do hope
for a followup
Rating:
Summary: Shopgirl
Review: This was a suprisingly emotional and well-written book. I have always associated Steve Martin with a kind of immature bafoonery. So I was pleasently suprised that he treated his characters with an almost tenderly grave respect. The dialogue of missed communications spoke to me of the almost universal and eternal miscommunication between the genders and of the disparity in our goals and communication styles. It also spoke to me of the differences in the ways that genuine caring and concern is expressed. I was particularly touched by the outcome of the relationship between Mirabelle and Ray, in which he comes to accept his role as a father figure and continues to nurture her through gifts and emotional support was tender and elicited a longing within me. There was a minor character - minor enough to have her name almost forgotten - Lisa I think it was - whose side story taught me volumes. Her only mission in life was the acquisition of men's psyches like scalps on her war belt. Her inner world was a wasteland with her largest concerns being the perfection of her sexual technique. I suppose I have always known that such women exist but to hear them so vividly - and probably honestly -described made my blood run cold. I emerged with a better understanding of my husband. I think I have begun to comprehend his fears as he approached dating years ago. I also understand more of why he loves and feel more secure in his love having read this book. Lisa looked perfect, she was the perfect flirt and the perfect lay. But Lisa represents many mens greatest fear and now I understand why. I used to discount myself knowing that I could never be a Lisa - now I am thankful. My hat is off to Mr. Martin. He is much bigger a man than he appears on screen.
Rating:
Summary: A mild and lazy book
Review: When Steve Martin first burst upon the comedy scene, he was billed as a "wild and crazy guy." Of course, this moniker was ironic, absurdist, and a "zany" put-down. In his conservative white suits, prematurely gray hair, and wholesome facial demeanor, Martin was anything but out of control. His new novella harkens back to that same contradictory labeling. Not for a minute does the main character Mirabelle ever come off as a shopgirl. She is portrayed (unevenly) at page one as a shy, retiring, closeted anachronism--a girl who prefers to read about life rather than experience it. Suddenly, though, her character shifts dramatically and we discover that she is an aloof, medicated, formerly promiscuous artist who is merely whiling away her days at an upscale department store. Neither Mirabelle--cloistered wallflower or Prozac Nation hipster--rings true. Mirabelle, who is alternately described as an Olive Oyl doppelganger and a pillowy, sexy babe, has two male admirers in the book: a fifty-plus-year-old millionaire and a twentysomething slacker. The older man, Mr. Ray Porter, seems to be a surrogate for Mr. Martin. In fact, as the book rambles on, Mirabelle seems to be the walking embodiment of Steve Martin's own dream girl. The author himself is Mirabelle's most adamant and lovestruck suitor. This is an interesting glimpse into the sexual druthers of a wildly successful comic. Apparently, Steve is pining for a quiet woman with clean hair and unblemished skin, who has a passion for art and a good sense of fashion; a woman who can turn heads while turning pages of Victorian novels. Most people place personal ads when they are searching for Mr. or Ms. Right. Luckily for Steve Martin, he was paid, published, and indulged in his quest for a perfect mate. If this book hadn't been penned by a well-known public figure, I doubt it would have seen the light of day. The packaging of the book is high quality and a lot of money has obviously been spent in making this tome an appealing, eye-grabbing purchase. It's fitting that the novella's window dressing is the best thing about it. With its fine paper, efficient layout, and crisp design, it mirrors the physical description of its heroine, Mirabelle. Inside, though, its story line is pretty empty and unsatisfying, much like Mirabelle, too. Steve Martin has a quirky way with words and a comedic/realistic understanding of how men and women are not always on the same page. Too bad he decided to fill these pages and this novel with an unconvincing love story and shallow resolution.
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