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Rating: 
Summary: Don't let this one spoil the rest.
Review: After several FANTASTIC books, I assumed this would be the same. No such luck. I was bored silly by this book and miss Rodi's usually hilarious charachters and twists. A long wait for this book with no payoff...
Rating: 
Summary: i couldn't get through it
Review: i could not get past the first 30 pages or so. i found it dull and the way that it flips back and forth between formats is distracting. i found it to be boring. i would not recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: An HYSTERICAL return
Review: I've enjoyed all of Robert Rodi's novels, but this one, with its stylish correspondance style was SO MUCH FUN! The humor is intelligent, and it is so well paced that Mr. Rodi actually gives you time to breathe between major laugh-till-you-cry episodes. The parody of a scene from "An Urban Rail Conveyance Named Desire" alone, on just a few pages, is worth the entire price of this book. Congratulations, Mr. Rodi, and could we have more? It was a while between this one and Kept Boy.
Rating:
Summary: hysterically entertaining
Review: Robert Rodi is a master of his craft. Interesting style and sharp wit combine to make acid-tripping dogs and bitter back-stabbing actress antics a rollicking success in his latest novel.
I just have to say this books is genius. And, for the die-hard Rodi fan, you MUST check out his new comic-book series, CODENAME: KNOCKOUT which is sinfully delicious.
Rating:
Summary: hysterically entertaining
Review: Robert Rodi is a master of his craft. Interesting style and sharp wit combine to make acid-tripping dogs and bitter back-stabbing actress antics a rollicking success in his latest novel.
I just have to say this books is genius. And, for the die-hard Rodi fan, you MUST check out his new comic-book series, CODENAME: KNOCKOUT which is sinfully delicious.
Rating: 
Summary: Different, fluffy but still entertaining
Review: Robert Rodi weaves his tale in a novel, clever sort of way, stitching his story together with nothing but correspondences: e-mails, answering machine messages, letters, affidavits, whatever. Although it's a little hard to get into for the first 2 chapters or so, this method slowly but surely grows on you. The interesting bits really only come towards the middle of the book, but Rodi's style is snappy and interesting enough to keep your interest till then. It gets saccharine-sweet towards the very end, and the big climax isn't really *that* big after all, but you can almost forgive that, since the rest of the book is actually pretty decent.
Rating:
Summary: "We're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave..."
Review: There's been a heat wave of tropical proportions in my town and it's been tough just stringing two thoughts together, which is probably why the "summer reading" genre has been so-called. I doubt if Rodi falls into this catagory but during overheated times like these, I've reached for a Rodi book to kickstart the cure by laughter and have never been disappointed by the crazy, wild, fastpaced and delightful worlds he creates. He says things other people only think and tell themselves to surpress. His characters are bigger than life, even though they're disguised as the people next door. His stories are usually adorable and effective and the laugh-a-page quota has always exceeded expectations. Even his titles are remarkable. Who can forget titles like FAG HAG, DRAG QUEEN, CLOSET CASE or KEPT BOY?Alas and alack, not so with BITCH GODDESS. I don't know what happened, but this pill is a placebo and doesn't work the cooldown cure. Rodi strings together a series of interviews, emails, memos, answering machine messages, scripts, newspaper and magazine articles to tell the story of Viola Chute, cult movie actress turned recent TV star (Ã la Joan Collins, it looks like) and her ghost writer. It's difficult to tell whether we are meant to admire Viola or dispise her but certainly just about everybody in the book can't stand her. As depicted by Rodi she's not all that bad. It's the things that people say about her that are awful and perhaps that's the point. Rodi reaches a little too far for shock value and there are some not-so-funny or effective references using scatological humor that miss the mark. Rodi seemed to have found his pace near the end of the book and I got a couple of laughs-a-page but not enough to justify reading this. I hate to slam a book but this one's a clunker. Heigh-ho or sigh: take your pick.
Rating:
Summary: Rodi's best yet
Review: What a riot! After a slight gap between books, Rodi is back with a hilarious, spiky Hollywood satire. I've never seen anyone work so nimbly in the epistolary style. His details are perfect, and the characters, as always, are brilliant. If "Absolutely Fabulous" were a book, this would be it. I was sorry to miss Rodi when he was in New York on his book tour. I hear he put on quite a show. For now I guess I'll just have to settle for rereading some of his other novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Need fun? Read this one!
Review: When I started reading this book, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I guess I was sort of ho-hum about it. It was cute, funny and had a neat style to it, but there didn't seem to be anything special about it. Then, surprisingly, that all changed. Bitch Goddess really started to grow on me. Soon, I found myself reading it for hours just to find out what happened next. Viola Chute is one memorable character! Author Robert Rodi has created this fabulous life for her, a former B-movie actress who has found a rise in her career through the nighttime soap opera, The Winds of Wyndamville. But there are a few years in Viola's life that are unaccounted for. Where was she between 1979 and 1982? There are no records, articles or interviews claiming a much-needed vacation or a few years spent at a spa retreat. And when anyone brings it up, Viola is the queen of changing the subject. Mr. Harry is hired by Viola to ghostwrite her biography. While doing so, he becomes intrigued by the missing years and goes in search of the truth. And by this time, readers will be curious, too. The story is told entirely in interviews, articles, answering machine messages, faxes, e-mails, and tape-recorded conversations between Mr. Harry and Viola. It was very easy to follow along with the style, and I think this aspect of the novel is what made it so much fun to read. This is my first try with a Robert Rodi book, and I'm thinking another one will be in order soon!
Rating:
Summary: Need fun? Read this one!
Review: When I started reading this book, I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. I guess I was sort of ho-hum about it. It was cute, funny and had a neat style to it, but there didn't seem to be anything special about it. Then, surprisingly, that all changed. Bitch Goddess really started to grow on me. Soon, I found myself reading it for hours just to find out what happened next. Viola Chute is one memorable character! Author Robert Rodi has created this fabulous life for her, a former B-movie actress who has found a rise in her career through the nighttime soap opera, The Winds of Wyndamville. But there are a few years in Viola's life that are unaccounted for. Where was she between 1979 and 1982? There are no records, articles or interviews claiming a much-needed vacation or a few years spent at a spa retreat. And when anyone brings it up, Viola is the queen of changing the subject. Mr. Harry is hired by Viola to ghostwrite her biography. While doing so, he becomes intrigued by the missing years and goes in search of the truth. And by this time, readers will be curious, too. The story is told entirely in interviews, articles, answering machine messages, faxes, e-mails, and tape-recorded conversations between Mr. Harry and Viola. It was very easy to follow along with the style, and I think this aspect of the novel is what made it so much fun to read. This is my first try with a Robert Rodi book, and I'm thinking another one will be in order soon!
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