Rating: 
Summary: Some fantastic lines, but lacking some oomph
Review: Giving only three stars to a book that took less than an afternoon to read -- and so didn't impose upon my time the way a really horrible 800-pager would -- is hard to reconcile. And although Steve Martin's latest work contains some great passages, excellent insights into the characters he creates, it's missing something that I can't quite put my finger on. I can say with near certainty that, upon finishing this book, you won't feel the time spent reading it was a waste. But you'll probably walk away with a bad taste in your mouth, wishing there had been more, or that what was there had been better.
Rating: 
Summary: Steve Martin--yes, that Steve Martin--creates a tiny jewel
Review: A short novella about an aimless, sad-ish, 28-year-old glovesalesman at Neiman Marcus, and the appetitive, remote, rather blank50-year-old rich guy who beds her, SHOPGIRL is chiselled out of afine, filigreed melancholy. In exquisitely pared-down sentences thatresemble sculptures made out of tallow or ice, Steve Martin treats theconnection that buds between these two gently, compassionately, withthe sort of tender inspection one expects from a pediatrician. Thenovel is in every way lovely and tear-inducing. It suggests Martin isa major talent and not a novelty act. But one can only guess that itsstory stems from personal experience bent by the vicissitudes offiction. Because only a movie star in his fifties would have therich-guy hero pay for the heroine's prescription drugs, her rent, hercredit-card bills, and numerous other things, and still wonder,"But what is this relationship REALLY about?" Didn't thisguy see "L.A. Story"?
Rating:
Summary: ONCE I HAD A SECRET LOVE
Review: Well, this is a sad story about an intelligent unambitious quietly attractive woman who is a clerk in the glove department of the Beverly Hills Neiman Marcus store and her unsatisfying romance with a wealthy businessman almost twice her age. She is lonely and he is lonely and so it goes. Without intentionally meaning to be unkind the businessman hurts our heroine and author Steve Martin now unveils the consequences of unintended cruelty. How can someone so funny write something so sad, so poignant, so melancholy? Well he does, and he succeeds in taking the reader into understandable depths of desire and emotion. We emphathize with these "May-December" characters. We wonder if perhaps the author, comedian, playwright, banjo player, wild- and- crazy guy, actor, literary humorist and screenwriter--- might just long for a simplier life. Could this be a secret, albeit, sad love? or just a close parallel to the song?" Shopgirl" is well-written and easy to read. Can a film by the same name be very far behind this Novella?
Rating:
Summary: Sleeping Beauty Wakes Up in Beverly Hills
Review: A little while ago a certain e-mail made the rounds. It contained the fictitious story of a certain man and woman and their totally divergent reactions to the woman's observation that they have been dating exclusively for six months - she immediately blames herself for putting too much pressure on him, he only takes note of the fact that six months is a long time between tune-ups. It says all it needs to about the war between the sexes in some three pages - Shopgirl says more or less the same thing in 130. Mind you, it's a charming story and rather touching in its way - the characters are cute (a little confused but they mean extremely well), and what happens to them is exactly what I'd like to have happen to me - but at times it feels a little empty. It's kind of like cotton candy; sweet, but too much air for not enough substance. On the other hand, if the story is a little thin, that fact gives the language a lot more agility than we usually find in romances. The narrator skips from character to character, scene to scene, leaping over months of incident without even a mention. He (or she) interrupts the story frequently to explain the differences between the characters' beliefs and the story's reality, making statements like "What neither of them understands is that these conversations are meaningless." Makes the whole thing read like a sociological study of modern urban mating habits, when it doesn't read like an updated fairy tale with Mirabelle as a barely ambulatory Sleeping Beauty and Ray as a miscast Prince Charming. (It's worth noting that the identity of the real Prince Charming is a nice little surprise.) Despite (or maybe because of) this veering between academic commentary and 21st-century myth, the narrator is undoubtedly the book's most intriguing character. One gets a notion of him as a kind of combination radio psychologist and guardian angel, watching out for these people, making sure they learn the lessons they need to learn for their happiness' sake without getting hurt too much in the process. And they do, in fact, learn their lessons with minimal pain. Doesn't make for a very dramatic story - what it does do is allow us to live a pleasant secondhand life for a couple of hours before getting back to the blood and guts of our real lives, and there's nothing so wrong about that, after all. I remember back in the early 80's when Steve Martin first came to national prominence, with his whole "Excuuuse Me" routine - I never would have guessed in those days that that wise guy could write a fluffy piece of whimsy like Shopgirl, but then he made "L.A. Story" and "Parenthood" (another couple of stories about quirky people in looking-glass worlds), and Shopgirl makes a lot more sense. Steve Martin has moved in a few years from telling sarcastic stories about freaks to telling oh-so-sympathetic stories about good-hearted lost souls. And these stories feel good, like a picnic in the park with your sweetie on a warm spring day, and they last about that long in the mind. Great literature it's not, but it goes down quick and it makes you smile. That's not only harmless, it's probably necessary. Benshlomo says, A little candy never hurt anybody.
Rating: 
Summary: And I thought he was just a "wild and crazy guy"
Review: Bravo Steve Martin. Once he shows another side of his many talents by writing a wonderul book for light reading. This could have been written as a memoir if I was the fact that it was written in third person. The main character Mirabelle tries desperate to hold to her wits. She's trying to become a sucessful artist. Working in Neiman Marcus in the most slowest buying area in the store. She must deal with immature "maybe" boyfriends and deal with handsome, dashing men who aren't sure what they want out of life. I was really that Mirabelle didn't end it all. Instead like true independent woman of today; she survives and moves on. Hey Steve, have you started writing the screenplay to this yet.
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Novella...
Review: I can't decide whether this novella is great or simply brilliant. I read this book in almost one sitting and when I finished, there were three aspects I couldn't get out of the mind. 1) The depth of the characters. Although the book is relatively short, these characters were burned into my brain. I knew them, I could compare them to aspects of people that I knew. 2) The writing style. Much of the writing is the various character's internal dialog mixed with a omnscient-third-person perspective. Mix this dialog with Martin's gift for delicious metaphors and I found myself often rereading paragraphs for the pure delight of experiencing the words once more. The only issue I have with this novella is one similar to Martin's _Picasso at the Lapin Agile_ in that he seems to clutch on endings. With so much orignality, one would hope his endings would be on par with his beginnings and middles.
Rating:
Summary: Mirabelle Plath???
Review: Martin's easy style is pleasant. One cannot help but feel for Mirabelle and her unrequited hungers. Yet I found myself wanting to grab her by the shoulders and give her a good shake. I had the same reaction in "The Bell Jar" and then began to see similarities in the two main characters. Did Martin do this intentionally or is it merely an observation about the lonely masses and thier lonely and desperate lives? You could see Mirabelle's fate acoming but that doesn't make it any less compelling. In short, I liked the book but would like to have learned more about Jeremy and Ray. Lisa was completely knowable but the other characters made me want to know more about them and their motivations.
Rating:
Summary: Can't Wait to Read it Again!
Review: After having read Steve Martin's articles for The New Yorker I couldn't wait to dive into his new novella, and I was not disappointed. Each character comes to life in this tightly written and clear voiced book. "The Conversation", one of the more brief chapters in the book, is clearer than "Mars and Venus on a Date" as it describes what women and men are saying and hearing when they talk to each other. While I didn't particularly like any of the characters, the writing is so good that I coudn't help but enjoy watching them evolve.
Rating:
Summary: A Pleasant Enough Confection
Review: I breezed through this slim tome in a few short hours' time. Steve Martin is no dummy -- the book includes many clever and well put phrases, and zips along at a nice clip. There were, however, a few elements which prevented me from giving the book any more than three stars. First of all, there's very little dialogue, but that's just a personal preference of mine. Secondly, and most importantly, I felt that Mr. Martin did not succeed in fleshing out Mirabelle's character in a consistant way. I don't desire predictable characters, of course, but Mirabelle, I think, surpassed being a "mystery" and ended up at just plain improbable. My last gripe, also minor, regards Mr. Martin's propensity to toss in a random profanity here and there. This complaint does not stem from any prudishness on my part -- the words were simply jarring and not at all in line with the subtelty which was a large component of both protagonists' characters. Overall, a pleasurable read, but ultimately not memorable.
Rating:
Summary: The Stars And My Review Are Contradictory
Review: How to reconcile the stars with the statement that I did not enjoy this book? Steve Martin is a gifted practitioner of words whether he is writing, speaking, singing, or communicating through an actor who speaks his words, or speaking the words as he acts out the thoughts of another. This book is a very good piece of writing, it is at times humorous, is nearly uniformly clever, and I still dislike it. Another individual used the word "startling" to describe some of the writing and dialogue. I agree, but it was because I didn't expect this from Mr. Martin. I suppose it can be considered arrogant to expect anything from an Author, but as Mr. Martin has been around for so long, he becomes familiar, and this was anything but what I expected. The characters are very well done, and are almost uniformly wretched and pathetic. Their treatment of one another is again, with rare exception, atrocious. The Author is even-handed; as there are male and female characters whose demise no one would mourn. Mr. Martin delves into relationships that explore the most unseemly side of human relations, and perhaps the style he used was appropriate. As I said, I admire the talent that the book represents, but I did not like reading it. There is one flaw in the book, unless I was oblivious to some key event. A character makes an appearance; he clearly has a great deal to do with another player in the book, and by extension the behavior of even more individuals. But as abruptly as he arrives, he is forgotten, we never even see him leave. Worth reading for the caliber of writing, but for me, the characters and the story were too degrading.
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