The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

Rating:
Summary: What a surprise
Review: Given its bestseller status and fluffy-sounding title, I had no real desire to ever read this book. But one night, desperate to read a late-twentieth-century novel by a young writer, I called my neighbor to ask what she had and she lent me this.

The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing is a sweet, charming, and intelligent book. The structure is unusual: seven long chapters that could each stand alone as a short story. This format is well-suited to the phenomenon of serial monogamy familiar to most of us currently in our twenties and thirties. Though each chapter (but one) is narrated by the main character Jane, they all vary subtly in tone, voice and style. In "Advanced Beginners," sixteen-year old Janie observes her older brother's relationship with his first serious girlfriend. "The Floating House" is a deft examination of jealousy and what it's like to deal with your lover's ex. "My Old Man" is the story of Jane's relationship with Archie, an editor 28 years her senior. "The Best Possible Light" is the only story that doesn't deal with Jane directly, though the characters are tangentially connected to her. "The Worst thing a Suburban Girl Could Imagine" has Jane simultaneously faced with her father's death and Archie's health problems. In "You Could be Anyone," Jane's obsessive lover loves her perhaps more than anyone else has, but in the end she realizes that he doesn't really know her, and never will. The title story is the funniest story in the book, and the one where our heroine finally finds true love.

What each of these stories has in common is an underlying sense of humor and intelligence. It's refreshing to follow a character who grows and learns from her life. Highly recommended - light reading with substance.

Rating:
Summary: This Girl's Guide to Great Fiction
Review: I put off reading this book for months. The cover would catch my eye in the bookstore every time I'd pass by the bestseller table, but for some reason I would just never buy it. I finally picked it up in an airport bookstore and read this book in the time it took to get from Miami to New Jersey. I wish I had read this earlier.

Melissa Bank has created a wonderfully witty and three-dimensional character in Jane, one that I haven't run into in quite some time. She writes her stories in anecdotes, as if she's remembering things piece by piece, as so many of us tend to do. Ms. Bank doesn't waste our time with long, flowery speech, becoming so involved with the way the clouds look, or the air smells, that she forgets about her characters. Her writing style is very unique and to the point, and keeps your attention all the way through. I found myself laughing out loud on the plane one minute and getting choked up the next. Great writers can do that so seamlessly that our emotions never know what's in store, but we love every minute of it.

(The reason I gave this book 4 stars instead of 5, is that I felt one of the short stories did not belong in this particular book. It was the only one that didn't involve Jane, and while it was a very good story, I think it could have been saved for the next collection.)

Rating:
Summary: Understated wisdom and humor in this enjoyable read...
Review: The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing is a compilation of short stories, mostly revolving around the character Jane Rosenal, a sarcastic yet unquestionably endearing New Yorker whose growth we see marked by different events and stages of her life. Each chapter/story leaves Jane with ideas and revelations to ponder about herself, life, relationships, and love, and how all of these things relate to each other. Bank uses the cute analogy of "hunting and fishing" to relate to the process of finding oneself and one's soulmate.

It is surprising that such a quick delightful read can be so insightful and profound at the same time. Bank uses simple language to get her point across, but her words are carefully chosen and her humor is smart and honest. Bank's refreshing style recounts moments that are telling snapshots of Jane's life and the story, with no additional fluff to fill up the pages. She gets across in one sentence what it takes many authors to get across in one chapter. And because she shows more than tells, it leaves the reader with the ability to take from the story what he/she wants. As a result, it is as much the reader's journey as it is Jane's. In funny and serious, tragic and mundane moments, the book never attempts to manipulate the reader's emotions.

My one complaint is that Bank's clever humor extends to all the supporting characters - every character seems to dip into the same wit pool as Jane, with puns and playing on words plentiful, which is a bit distracting. However, this is a small flaw that doesn't take away from the overall enjoyment of the book. There is also a chapter/story tucked in the middle, as told by the point of view of a character never before introduced to the story, and it interrupts the flow of the stories a bit.

This book will leave you with your own questions to ponder about life, and is a timeless story that can be read over and over again. For all the readers out there who read Bridget Jones and were looking for more substance, this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: sharp as a tack
Review: From the title, I had always assumed this was a non-fiction work but I'm happy to report it is in fact an excellent book of short stories. I was so completely charmed by the 12 year old narrator in the first story that I read the whole book in one sitting. How can you not love the "loser" younger sister who tries to hold her sarcastic thoughts in as she watches her older brother and his bizarre Jordan-esque girlfriend. We are lucky as readers to hear her snide remarks in italics like her thoughts on saying goodnight, "I'd love to stay and talk, but I have to go shoot some heroin now." The first story is full of witticisms and insights into the young Janie who appears in many of the later stories as well.

I particularly like the title story (the final one in the collection) in which we watch the narrator try to live by the "rules" of dating from some ridiculous self-help book. Everytime she is about to let her own funny voice come through (which is how her date first was attracted to her), she stifles it in favor of the "proper" remark, and quickly loses her man. It is really quite hilarious. I enjoyed this collection from start to finish, even the somewhat odd creation of Archie, the older man. A very refreshing collection.

Rating:
Summary: Such a 'real' book, and a funny one, too!
Review: Although other critics have called this the American version of Bridget Jones' Diary, quite frankly, if I were Melissa Bank, I'd be offended by the comparison. BJ Diary was contrite, surface, and meaningless - true beach garbage reading (so bad I didn't bother to review it) .... Melissa Bank is clever, emotional and 'real' in her prose. Her characters are completely believeable and the reader is easily sympathetic with the protagonist, Jane Rosenal. Perhaps one of the reasons I loved this book was that although I obviously have never experienced the same lovers, friends, and family that "Jane" has, I have been a single woman who has tried to understand what it's all about. From the observations that Jane has as a fourteen year old with an older brother (and the variety of women he dates) through her twenties and thirties... she manages to be glaringly honest and quite funny at the same time. We are easily attached to Jane and relate to her as she deals with serious family illness, an older lover, and the slow, painful death of her job. One of the best things about this novel for me is that Jane is very witty and deals with the small tragedies of life with a certain lightheartedness. I have often found, personally, that humor is one of the best medicines and Melissa Bank employs it to perfection in this novel.

Rating:
Summary: Transcends genre - almost literary
Review: There's something about criticizing a book for what it is not when the author's intentions were something different. It's kind of like saying, "I don't like chocolate ice cream," and then expecting this opinion to be the reality for everyone else.

As a male, I happened to like "The Girls' Guide." My girlfriend, on the other hand, did not. "Chick lit" this is not. True, most readers are probably women, but that doesn't make it genre fiction - something that is tied to certain rules of plot instead of just good character development.

With the exception of the last story, the author's focus isn't on creating the mandatory happy ending. No, Bank wants to show the whole silliness of dating and mating from a specific perspective - that of the sarcastic and funny Jane. For the most part it works. However, as others have pointed out, there's just a little bit too much wittiness to go around. Too many of the characters are as smart and funny as Jane.

When it comes to the men Bank plays it straight. Which is as it should be. You know you're in la-la land when an author takes sides and manipulates the story so that all the men or all the women are good or bad. (Example: Emerald City : Stories by Jennifer Egan.) You get a taste of both here. It's realistic.

As for the last story, I happen to like it because it's so true. The sexist "rules" that cause certain men to be attracted to women are based on faulty logic. Do you just want to get married - to anyone? Then the "rules" work. If you want to meet someone you truly love, be yourself. Simplistic, but true. And something that a lot of readers, especially women, need to know.

Rating:
Summary: Loved, loved, loved this book , except for one thing....
Review: Had I known before reading this book that it was a "collection of short stories compiled to read like a novel", I would have had a better understanding of how, out of nowhere, one chapter is suddenly told in a first person voice that is not the main character. I continued through the rest of the book to look for these characters to appear, and when they never showed up again, it left me disconcerted and puzzled.
There is also a chapter where the first person narrative switches to another voice, but this change did not seem as out of place as the sudden addition of new characters. It was interesting how much was covered in this one chapter, without much detail, yet adding to the fullness and depth of the main character.

A fast, easy read, with likeable characters

Rating:
Summary: This is how Jane became the woman she is today
Review: This is a very urban, modern account of one personal growth and yet it has something very cosmopolite about it. Maybe cosmopolite is not the right terminology as this is clearly a very feminine, white, upper middle-class account; however cosmopolite in the sense that in varying nuances this is a human life story that can be similar to the lives of many of us. As if the narrator is saying: this is how I became myself. If you were to recount to someone what where the major stages of your personal development, what influenced you as a teen ager, who did you look up to as a role model, when did you learn to be assertive, etc. you might have come up with an account whose essence was similar to this book (although definitely not in the same talent).
Every story in this collection is a stand-alone and yet together they give us the growing up history of Jane Rosenhal.I see Jane as the classic modern heroine. She is not attractive and is very concerned with the question of feminine beauty. Like many of us she is weakened in front of beautiful people. She is smart and talented but does not feel she is exceptionally talented and maybe she isn't. Although the reader is unable to truly assess Jane' abilities he knows she is a hard worker in both her work and personal lives and a very direct funny person, whenever she can be herself. We learn how Jane learns to react to the world according to her experiences with the different people around her: lovers, boyfriends, family members, boss.
Jane has strong family bonds. In one of the best parts of the books she comes to the sad realization that she will never find a man that will love her the way her father did and this is a very hard notion to grasp.
This is also a story of a very healthy growing up environment. The heroine has received a lot of love from her parents and brother and in a way she has some strong solid base to build upon.
The first story happens at the time when Jane was about fourteen. The story centers around Henry, Jane's beloved brother and his relationship with his new girlfriend, all as captured through Jane eyes. She understands the situation but finds herself more understanding towards the woman side of this relationship. In this episode we also get familiar with the good family relations of Janes family, which nevertheless do not ensure that they will not bring her discomfort or pain in feeling that she might disappoint her family in choosing her partners. I liked all the stories /parts of the big story, but have to add that I was a little disappointed from the last story, bearing the name of the book (Girls guide to fishing and hunting) that is a little too predictable (in its outcome) although very easy to identify with (is there anyone out there who did not question the used advice of "just be yourself"?)
I enjoyed every part of this sincere touching book.

Rating:
Summary: I enjoyed this more than I thought I would
Review: I liked the overall format of this book and enjoyed the way each separate story stands alone while coming together as whole (with the exception of one where the point of view switches to the neighbors ~ this one threw me for a few pages!). The stories were interesting little slice of life pieces laced with humor and sorrow. It was a very quick read for me and I'm a terribly slow reader.

I clicked with Jane immediately when she's first introduced as a witty and observant teenager. When she ponders, "Why is everything I want to know wrong?" I had to laugh out loud because, being the nosey sort that I am, I've asked this question myself numerous times. Each story took an interesting look at relationships and even though Jane runs in a world much different than the one I inhabit, I enjoyed watching her mature and stumble her way through all sorts of different relationships (family, friends, lovers) and career woes. Her bluntness and wicked sense of humor kept me turning the pages even when she embarked on the hopeless romance (that gave me a bad case of the creeps) found in the chapter entitled "My Old Man". I've read a review or two complaining about the last chapter but I enjoyed it, even as it exasperated me and tried my patience! I felt it brought the book to a pleasant, uplifting conclusion and it felt very true to life.

Rating:
Summary: a great read for anyone on the "hunt"
Review: Jane Rosenal is the main character in one of the best books that I have read in a very long time, The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing. At first I was a bit turned off by the title but soon came to understand it. Jane was just a normal girl trying to "hunt" out the true meaning of love and who she is as a person. In this crazy world that we live in these are very common occurrences in which everyone can relate with. Jane is a very real character with problems that we encounter everyday in some way. She has many attempts to find that special love. First there was Jamie, but that just does not work. Then she attempts a relationship with a man 28 years older that her named Archie. That too was unsuccessful and ended twice. Jane, who was just fed up with all her defeated in the dating world, decides to purchase a book on the do's and don'ts of dating. This action of course is one of terrible judgment. Jane finally meets a wonderful guy, but sticks to the rules in the book. She becomes a different person and loses the guy. In the end she figures out that someone will love her for just who she is, and not someone she wants to be. This is a great book and I would recommend it for anyone who is frustrated with love and anyone who is on the "hunt"! HAPPY HUNTING! :)