Rating: 
Summary: A wild ride...
Review: I really enjoyed What She Saw.... I thought it was a very well-written piece of work, despite the fact that the main character, Phoebe, has serious issues. Lucinda Rosenfeld has done a wonderful job with this novel, and I will be sure to look out for her next offering.Phoebe Fine begins her story in the late 70s during her fifth grade year in school. The boy's name is Roger "Stinky" Mancuso, and Phoebe has a crush on him that won't quit. However, Stinky becomes more than just a dream for Phoebe, in ways both good and bad, and this experience becomes the stepping stone for a long and twisted journey. What She Saw... takes the reader through the odyssey that is Phoebe's love life. It is interesting to watch Phoebe grow up before our eyes, beginning with a sweet, curious kid to a messed-up adult still in search of love and fulfillment. The men that come into Phoebe's life sometimes stay, most often go, but always leave behind a piece of themselves that Phoebe carries with her. It is also interesting to see how each relationship develops and how, ultimately, they crumble. By the book's end, readers are left wondering about Phoebe -- does she make it; does she find true love; does she finally mature and realize that she is more than just the other half of a man? I recommend this novel with confidence. However, it won't be for everyone. Phoebe is not a wholly likeable character. She is quite frustrating at times. But she is also human with the most basic of desires -- to find love and be loved in return. I could relate to Phoebe on this level, and I think that is the part that cinched the book for me. What She Saw... is indeed a wild ride, but definitely one worth taking.
Rating: 
Summary: I am Phoebe Fine!!!
Review: I relate to Phoebe so much I'm kind of afraid Lucinda Rosenfeld was spying on me when she wrote this book!! For crying out loud, there's even a mention of my hometown of Altoona, PA! But really, Phoebe goes through things that my friends and I have all experienced. She is a very realistic character and the novel is an easy read, although the conclusion could offer a little more resolution. But I HIGHLY recommend you read this book, especially if you've ever thought, "What did I see in him?"
Rating: 
Summary: Not so good; not so bad
Review: I'm a guy with a weakness of coming of age novels. I generally avoid "chick" novels, but have enjoyed books by Amy Sohn and Jennifer Belle. Both books had an edge and some laugh out loud humor to them. What She Saw.., I had hoped, would be in the same vein. Rosenfeld writes well enough. I enjoyed her conceit--each guy was a chapter--it was original enough. But, I didn't find Phoebe all that appealing. It was hard to like her. Maybe it is because I'm a guy (probably most like Neil in the book) and find her kind of sad. Perhaps I did not "get" what the book was really about. Her salvation in the end, did not come with the kind of depth that many other Gen X novelists have found. There are no great insights here. A few good chapters to be sure and some sad moments that do hit home. In the end, I feel like Phoebe did so often. A bit empty, confused, and looking for something better. I'm not sorry I read it--but I think other Gen X first novels may have more to offer. Perhaps I just missed something here.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but necessary?
Review: If you're a girl in your twenties or thirties this book definitely hits home. It's a quick read -- it took me only two sittings -- and the writing is tight, concise and good. However, it is another book about girls that shows our insecurities, issues with self-esteem/body issues and eating disorders (not to mention sexual dysfunction and deviance). Maybe this is good. Obviously many relate to the daily dramas of Pheobe Fine, the main character, however, I think plenty of these books exist already. I didn't find anything fresh or particularly interesting about Rosenfeld's stab at the genre.
Rating:
Summary: from a young male writer
Review: In my compulsion to read something tragically endearing and self-deprecatingly funny, I devoured this over the weekend on the strength of The New Yorker excerpt. As you might expect, that excerpt contained the best chunk of her novel. However, it fell into line nicely as part of the evolution of one young woman's bout with insecurity and promiscuity, her trials with too much cellulite and not enough eating. The novel's post-feminist, woman-defined-by-man tone succeeds where Ally McBeal disappoints, but I found the initial chapters awkwardly paced while the finale seemed truncated, misplaced, almost, amongst the fourteen prior pieces that tended to read more like memoir than fiction. Rosenfeld's an obvious talent, a delicious stylist whom I'll watch with interest. But ultimately, like her character, I was left unfulfilled in that way you sometimes feel after a one-night stand even though the sex was great.
Rating:
Summary: Dirty and funny!
Review: Loved Phoebe Fine, the good-girl hosebag! A fast-moving and very funny book. Smart, too.
Rating: 
Summary: An embarrassment to educated women everywhere
Review: Lucinda Rosenfeld's book makes educated women look like absolute idiots. Phoebe is lucky she didn't end up with a venereal disease for all the sleeping around she did, in a mental hospital for her miserable self esteem, or in jail for stealing food as a starving Manhattanite. Just ridiculous and embarrassing. Unlike Bridget Jones or many of the female characters Candace Bushnell creates, Phoebe is not a character you would want to be friends with. Or, in my experience, even read about.
Rating:
Summary: no normal girl
Review: no point in reading this stipid, self-indulgent piece of garbage..... if you want to read a good book read normal girl.... this girl is horrible, and the things she's done.... but her book is worst then she is...
Rating:
Summary: Future classic?
Review: Quite possibly a future classic in the ranks of Catcher in the Rye and the like. It could even be banned in some states. So get it while you can. I really enjoyed it and laughed out loud at times. While there were some cheap thrills, it still had many qualities that rose above the TV novel.
Rating: 
Summary: disappointing
Review: Sadly, while reading this book, it is shoved down the reader's throat that Phoebe is a girl who suffers from the fact that every man she meets wants to have sex with her, and since she's basically a [prostitute], it usually happens. This takes away from Phoebe's intelligence and her other qualities that would make her a good person and a person worth knowing and caring about. Also, at about the hundredth mention of how beautiful and attractive she is to the opposite sex, the subtlety wears a little thin. Having said that, the book does have its moments, and I thought in general it had a lot of potential but ultimately fell short. It had a lot of promise in the beginning, but didn't follow through. Phoebe ends up coming across as an unlikable and empty sort of person, one of those annoying women who are always trying to call themselves victims and blame everyone else for their so-called unhappiness. I couldn't relate to her at all and it's unfortunate that the author chose to write a character who is such a cliche`. Also, the sexual references are disgusting, crude and totally gratuitous. I would recommend Why She Went Home instead.
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