Rating: 
Summary: rambling manuscript in search of an editor
Review: I loved Prozac Nation and was more than willing to forgive a first author her foibles - lack of coherence and cohesiveness. But in this, a long and boring rant without focus, there is simply no excuse. It reminded me of those endless nights helping an otherwise bright woman friend come down off coke or speed. There are too many other well-written books out there. Spare yourself.
Rating: 
Summary: Were Were Edmund Wilson born a woman in the 60's.....
Review: he may've penned something like this.
Her endless pop cultural references got boring but it was easy to skim them over and come back in on yarns I was more interested in. She makes some choice poetic descriptions of her subjects. My favorite was about Amy Fisher being "As vulnerable as Austro-Hungary on the eve of WWI, a weak and unassertive territory with boundaries and ideologies up for grabs." I'll never again be able to think of said empire the same! The only thing better would be a historian comparing Austro-Hungary to Amy Fisher. Also, the closing of the Fisher essay is very very moving, very heavy, deep and poetic. The more I combed thru these essays the more I enjoyed them, there was fun and insights in the rambling and yet and yet I wish she'd tightened the screws and wielded the axe and turned this into the classic it hints at but never quite achieves.
Rating: 
Summary: frenetic but very clouded
Review: Wurtzel is an extraordinarily gifted writer but has a chronic inability to form coherent arguments. She makes some great points but drops them in pursuit of other topics, leaving the reader with little idea of what, if anything, she means to really say. Wurtzel's stellar introduction melts into a combination of erudite arguments and self-absorbed mellodrama with enough decent filler in between to keep one interested. A good read, but far from perfect.
Rating:
Summary: B*tch (Elizabeth Wurtzel)
Review: Much, much better than her (crummy) "Prozac Nation" which is a self-important book about her and not depressed teenagers in America. I bought this book called "B*TCH" by Elizabeth Wurtzel about the misinterpretations of female behavior and though I just got started with it, the introduction has some important points about why females should not apoligize for being `b*tches`, female role models played in movies like Basic Instinct, Disclosure, Single White Female, Thelma & Louise, Fatal Attraction and such! Talking about actresses Sharon Stone (who played as b*tches in almost every movie she ever made), Kim Basinger... and lines that says "It`s not the blondes who have more fun. It`s the sl*ts (who have more fun)" & "Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls get to go everywhere!" It also talks about the consequences of feminine beauty & even how teenage years are a hard time for guys because they want to "lay as many babes as possible & there's so much demand for this accumulation." If you are a person who has a hard time dealing with women or want to understand why women are so "crazy", read this book! Only problem is the front cover. This female looks so trashy! Most importantly, this book isn't.
Rating: 
Summary: Lacks attitude
Review: Having read Wurtzel's witty and insightful memoir, Prozac Nation, I looked forward to reading another one of her books. I thought I'd get a kick out of reading a book about America's most notorious women, but it lacks Wurtzel's sardonic humor and clever insights that made the aforementioned memoir such a delightful read. This book is a disappointment, to say the least. I expected more from this talented writer.
Rating:
Summary: Worth Wading Through
Review: In Elizabeth Wurtzel's second book, she takes on the ambitious project of studying and, in many cases, defending, the manipulative and sometimes "difficult" behavior of women, starting in biblical times with Delilah, all the way to Hillary Clinton. Although this book is very flawed, and certainly is not for everyone, you really have to admire what the author was attempting to do.After an introduction which, if you get beneath all the anecdotes, poses the question, 'what is it about women which makes them either good or bad, sexy or studious, wives or mistresses?' Wurtzel gives us five essays, each tackling various aspects of the female psyche. Each one is titled respectively: "He Puts Her On a Pedestal And She Goes Down On IT", "Hey Little Girl, Is Your Daddy Home?", "There She Goes Again", "The Blonde In The Bleachers," and "Used To Love Her But Had To Kill Her". Then, there is an epilogue, cleverly entitled, "Did I Shave My Legs For This?", which shows the difficulty that single women face, and the burdens which society simply expects women to carry in relationships. The first essay tackles the mystery of female seductiveness and how men are always wont to blame a woman for their downfall, even when it is their own guilelessness which causes them to fall for this woman in the first place. Such is the case in the tale of "Samson and Delilah", where the Bible clearly shows Delilah to be a woman of ill-repute, who ruined Samson. Next, she tackles the dilemmas of adolescent emotions, using the story of Amy Fisher, and how her affair with an older man led to her tragically attempting to kill his wife, who, to this day, denies that her husband had any involvement with Ms. Fisher. Third, she tackles the allure of female madness using twin icons, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, as her examples of brilliant madwomen, whose difficult depressive behavior is often overlooked to glorify their achievements. After this, comes an essay on people's reaction to females in positions of pseudo-power, with the role model of Hillary Clinton, who claims to be a strong, independent woman, yet somehow has submitted to her husband's adultery all these years. Lastly, there is an analysis of spousal abuse, using Nicole Brown Simpson and O.J.'s marriage as an example of the dynamics in this vicious "love-hate-stay-leave" cycle. The writing in this is rather disorganized and often quite uneven. However, if you realize that Elizabeth Wurtzel's intentions were really to shake up feminism and give it some movement, she has certainly succeeded. There is a lot to like about this book in that Wurtzel's consistent references to pop-culture will be familiar to all and easy to access. It really keeps your interest throughout what is virtually a crash-course in women's history and psychology. One of the more striking problems with this book is that Elizabeth Wurtzel can seem so critical and biting towards every public figure, and it can get irritating. However, this does alleviate itself towards the end, and she does an excellent job in the last essay, "Used To Love Her, But Had To Kill Her"--I was totally impressed. No matter what she says, whether you agree with her or disagree, Elizabeth Wurtzel always makes you think. I recommend this book as a unique and educational perspective on feminism in its less-explored outlets.
Rating: 
Summary: thought-provoking, though I wonder about her research
Review: There is a lot of opinion here in Wurtzel's commentary. She runs the gamut in an analysis of the lives of Amy Fisher, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Nicole Brown Simpson. However, Wurtzel places all of them in the context of difficult men and what they have given up for them. Which makes me think, doesn't that really make them victims? The book is a clever engaging read, though I wonder about her sources, even with the lengthy list of resources in the back. Wurtzel says what the popular media never say about a plethora of female celebrities. She points out that supermodel Nikki Taylor has no skills or education and twin baby boys at age 22 -- had she not been exceedingly beautiful, she would have been a welfare mother. Yet Wurtzel herself is obsessed with beauty, and the book is full of self-contradictions. Every woman Wurtzel mentions gets at least a few sentences devoted to her physical attributes. She also makes disparaging comments about the looks of Janet Reno and Donna Shalala -- but those very intelligent qualified women weren't hired to be supermodels anyway! Despite all of this, I give the book 5 stars for its ability to make the reader think and examine what the media has presented about several female personalities in the 1990s.
Rating:
Summary: Not as great as Prozac Nation, but what is?
Review: The second book by the incredibly talented and intriguing Elizabeth Wurtzel is about the most difficult women of the past and present, and how they were treated. Wurtzel compares women like Amy Fisher, Nicole Brown Simpson, Delilah, Mariel Hemmingway, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and more. She's researched the subject to a great extent and has included all of her sources in an extremely large works cited section. Wurtzel's book defines the mistreatment of women who've freely displayed their sexuality; girls who've been turned into sex objects by grown men; the suicidality of famous people; political wives, girlfriends, and lovers; the O.J. Simpson murder trial over his dead ex-wife Nicole; and even Lizzie's own life. She has her own artistic way of spreading the truth about these wonderful women. This truth needs to be learned by all people, but especially women. This is an amazing book and I would definitely recommend it to almost anyone else. Wurtzel has definitely mastered this study of women. She is definitely a genious when it comes to writing.
Rating:
Summary: There are things I liked about it and others I didn't...
Review: I did not like: *that the book did not follow any sort of train of thought. Even though it was broken up into five or six essays, she would go from one person to the next so quickly, you don't even know she was talking about a different person. I skipped most of the stuff on Delilah, the character showed up on occasion throughout 2-3 of the essays, and sometimes stayed for pages. I wasn't interested in it, and the author probably should have just written a whole essay on her. Apparently, this book was written on some kind of speed, which makes sense, but couldn't it have been cut down a little? Or, at least, molded into something readable? Maybe its supposed to fit with the running theme: "Bad girls: young, beautiful, and on drugs." Which leads me to the next thought... *What is her obsession with beauty? It seems like every woman she mentions is somehow tragically beautiful.. and these are the women who are bi#$%#s, the "difficult" women... how she says: "I am still pretty. I still have time to work out my marital status." <---What is that about? As if the only people who are married are good looking? Since when is marriage about "looks" anyway? or she also says.."even worse, it seems inevitable that there will come a time when I won't look good, when men will stop flirting with me, when this freedom sh#$ will start to feel more like free-falling. Will I know? Will I become pathetic?" No, you will just have to win people over by personality for a change! I just don't understand the superficial attitude for someone who is supposed to be a feminist. I have known women who are not great beauties, but everywhere they go, men fall in love with them. Once again, love is not about outside beauty. Unless, she is worried that at 50, she won't be able to have lots of one night stands, and men falling at her feet. This is probably true. *Her opinions didn't even follow anything concrete. It seemed that at one moment she believed wholeheartedly in something, and then turned around and said.. oh wait, i forgot about that. nevermind, i believe this instead. Unfortunately, i can't come up with an example, because I would have to plow through this monstrous book for it. At least, she broke it into paragraphs. What I did like about the book: * the way she uses examples of movies, books, stories, and songs in her essays. Most of the movies are familiar to me, Fatal Attraction, Foxfire... then she mentions others that maybe some people wouldn't know, but should watch.. like Welcome to the Dollhouse or if Lucy fell. Many books that I own, have references or what the author has as a bibliography... My favorite author SARK recommends books on every chapter, sometimes music or web pages. It's just like a chain where you are exposed to things you would never have been before you read this book. Unfortunately, in Wurtzel's bibliography, i think she fails to mention the movies. * I liked the essay, "Used to love her but I had to kill her." This touches on a lot of things having do to with O.J., and his late ex-wife Nicole. I never really followed the trial, but I do agree with the author, that he did it. It's funny too, because she doesn't use the word "allegedly" anywhere in the chapter. It's written like: when he killed her.... or he probably killed her because. It's as if she believes beyond a shadow of a doubt that he committed the crime, and she is not going to believe otherwise no matter what you say... *which leads into this: the honesty of the book gets me. I would be afraid to let go of myself too much into a book. She has very strong opinions. Not only that, but she talks about her life, how she feels about herself, what she has done. One of my favorite paragraphs is where she talks about how she is not married and why she is not.. the reason is because there are things she "needed to do." the start of this paragraph is... "I needed to spend a week in Florence by myself, to check into the Excelsior Hotel and eat breakfast and dinner in bed with a view of the Arno, watching soccer on Italian television and be amazingly bored, I needed to walk the streets of this most romantic and recherche of cities all alone..." I loved that. It goes on for about two pages but I didn't mind. You get a peek into her life and all of the adventures she has had. For me, I yearned for those experiences to be mine. I want to go back to Europe, this time all by myself, and see things I didn't get to see the first time because I was going to pubs and hanging out with friends. To sum up, it is a whale of a book, but if you have the patience to go through it, you should. She is very intelligent and has a lot of insight on things that I had never thought to analyze. If it is confusing or boring, skip it. That's what I did. There are just little gems scattered throughout. You just have to look for them sometimes.
Rating:
Summary: a book of babble
Review: Icould babble on and on like Elizabeth Wurtzel did when she wrote this book, but instead i'll make it short. Wurtzel is a great writer and I enjoy her sarcasm and delightful bitchiness. I loved her first book, "Prozac Nation" and had higher expectations for this one. It was 414 pages of babble- too much for me. I wouldn't recommend it.
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