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A Certain Age : A Novel

A Certain Age : A Novel

List Price: $13.00
Your Price: $9.75
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: how depressing can you get???
Review: A Certain Age is a novel that fits that famous line: "The book that fulfills the author's early promise." Tama Janowitz has, to state it even more simply, written her most accomplished work to date.

Her story of a young professional woman's spiral down on the outskirts of Manhattan's high society is as funny as her previous work, yet it contains a mature tone that questions the artificial, materialistic values her main character worships. A tragic comedy of manners and mishaps, A Certain Age is also a social critique as spot on and effective as Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho and Jay McInerney's Brightness Falls.

Ms. Janowitz continues to have great comic timing in humorous situations set at parties, shops, and auction houses. This novel also benefits from total control from start to finish. A Certain Age is a novel as polished as a gem from Tiffany & Co.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: You won't see in yourself in her....
Review: And, if you do, I'm worried for you. "A Certain Age: A Novel" by Tama Janowitz is a scary look into the world of who might possibly be the most shallow woman on the planet. Her world revolves around money. Spending it, making it, being around it. The backdrop of Manhattan, NY certainly adds some interest and a whole world of possiblities but, in the end, don't you really need a main character you can identify with? At least on some level? Well...I can pretty much say, that you won't with Florence.

There are moments of humor in this book. Hence, the few extra stars, but all in all....not worth my time. I was disappointed, sometimes disgusted, and pretty much let-down by this book. I hoped for more.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Reader from NYC
Review: Before there was "sex and the City", there was Florence. I loved her crazy choices, wild lifestyle - I was very concerned about her, but found humor and pain in this wonderfully eccentric novel. I thought it was just fantastic - entertaining - Tama Janowitz - please keep writing!!!!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Don't let the description fool you
Review: I picked up this book at a local used book store. I would be very upset had I paid full price for this novel! The book started out very good but after a few chapters you begin to see the main character spiral out of control. The main character, Florence, has absolutely no moral fiber; at least she is up front with herself about this flaw. You see her go from a woman who is invited to all the posh parties to a crack addicted nothing. She is greedy and only looking for a man who can give her some social status. She treats people who she percieves to be underneath her socially as trash and does anything she can to gain the next level of social status. I was very disappointed in this book. Do not let the produce description fool you, this is not a light hearted book about a woman's plight for a husband, riches, and social standing with in Manhattan. This book was a depressing tale of self destruction.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Best Served With a Grain of Salt
Review: I think the first thing the reader should do when approaching a Tama Janowitz novel is to detach yourself from the protagonist. You won't identify with her. She won't gratify you with a glorious Jane Austen-like triumph. But she's going to show you a wacky, twisted good time! Approach Florence's mishaps in Manhattan as a sort of postmodern anti-Cathy cartoon. Don't make yourself one with her; just observe her from the safety of your own comparatively sane existence and enjoy the socialite's-eye-view of a Manhattan that most of us "shabby 30-year-olds in thrift store finds" have only glimpsed from the outside.

I enjoyed this book immensely - smirking at the dead-on wit, covering my eyes at the "scary" parts, and just lapping up the shiny superficiality of Florence's world. I even caught myself rooting for Florence sometimes...although she immediately made me sorry by following each insight or moment of humanity with something outstandingly cringe-worthy. It's a fun read, not meant to be taken too seriously.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A BIG saucer of milk for the lady¿
Review: It's apt that the cover of "A Certain Age" shows a drain--I felt like taking a shower after finishing it. Florence is an aging "Sex and the City" tart supposedly based on Lily Bart of "House of Mirth." But Wharton understands that a reader needs to identify with something in a character--Lily's quixotic idealism keeps you rooting for her all the way down. Although her writing is above average and her observations are acute, Tama Janowitz gives you nothing except increasing contempt for Florence as she throws away the advantages of modern American life to wallow in addiction and degradation. It seems to be a poison pen letter from an aging "it girl" whose time has passed to all the women she has envied over the years or her husband has admired. Yuck. Stay away.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: well written and entertaining
Review: This book is very entertaining and needs to be taken for what it, is a fictional story.


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