Myrtle of Willendorf

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down
Review: I couldn't put this book down! It is a very short book, so not being able to tear myself away wasn't a problem. It was just a really intense, really enjoyable reading afternoon. There is something about the main character - Myrtle - that made me want to keep reading. Her story (told in first person) is about how as an art student in college, she has an obnoxious roommate who is always trying to make Myrtle into something she's not. Myrtle misses her old best friend from high school, but they had a big fight thier senior year because they were accused of being lesbians. Meanwhile, some mysterious unexplained happenings make Myrtle think of her old friend and the mystical, magical things her friend taught her. It is all told in a funny, ironic way with lots of priceless details. For instance, Myrtle hangs out at a coffee shop that has a Dr. Seuss theme, and the owner of the coffee shop dispenses wise advice.
I LOVED this book, and even though I read it in one afternoon months ago, I still think about it all the time.

Rating:
Summary: Myrtle is maddening!
Review: In the first place, I don't see how this is by any stretch of the imagination a young adult book. Myrtle is a college freshman and is dealing with adult issues like sexuality and self-image. While not necessarily inappropriate for older teens, it's not a specifically teen book, and I'm surprised to see it marketed that way.

On to the story: Myrtle is an overweight aspiring artist in her first year of college. During High School she had been a part of a wanna-be Wiccan coven (of basically 2 and sometimes 4 girls) where she had first become aquainted with the statue of Myrtle of Willendorf, an ancient piece of art which depicts a large woman with a round belly and large breasts, who was worshipped by ancient peoples. Her college roommate has a boyfriend named Goat, and Myrtle walks in on them a couple of times while they are having sex, and once while they are in the shower together where she sees Goat naked. He becomes the subject of a drawing she enters in an art contest, and she draws him as a satyr. This causes much hilarity among her roomate and her friends and humiliation for Myrtle, particularly when she realizes that they cannot conceive of her as a sexual being. She replaces Goat's portrait with a self-portrait of herself--a finger painting of Myrtle of Willendorf wherin she is the model. The painting is purchased for several hundred dollars and hung in the Women's Studies department.

I think the author was trying to convey Myrtle as taking back her self-esteem and showing the world that fat women are indeed beautiful and sexual beings. I think that is a great sentiment, but I really hated this book. It reminded me a lot of SHE'S COME UNDONE which I also really hated. Both books put the heroine through one humiliation after another and tack on a completely unsatisfying, unconvincing ending. Myrtle is a fake fat girl--in my experience, fat women do not wander around eating all day and living in a pig sty. It's a sterotypical portrayal, and Myrtle does not have enough personality to overcome the stereotypical behavior and make her a real person. The book has a lot of nice details, like the Dr. Seuss-themed coffeshop, but ultimately the characters do not come to life, and Myrtle's breakthrough is unconvincing.

Rating:
Summary: Deftly Constructed Miniature
Review: Myrtle is a beautifully drawn character study of a young woman struggling to find an identity despite the best efforts of her "friends" and her own low self image to influence her thinking. Myrtle's use of food to attempt to fill her emotional hunger is especially telling, as many women in similar situations can attest. Not a big book, but a painfully real one. A mature book for a mature teen or young adult who has similar concerns about weight, sexuality and love.

Rating:
Summary: Deftly Constructed Miniature
Review: Myrtle is a beautifully drawn character study of a young woman struggling to find an identity despite the best efforts of her "friends" and her own low self image to influence her thinking. Myrtle's use of food to attempt to fill her emotional hunger is especially telling, as many women in similar situations can attest. Not a big book, but a painfully real one. A mature book for a mature teen or young adult who has similar concerns about weight, sexuality and love.

Rating:
Summary: A Book All Young Women Should Read!
Review: Myrtle of Willendorf is a delightful book in which the main character, experiences those painful events of adolecense. Whether her perceptions are real or just the hyperbolic perceptions of a teen,it is how we have all felt at one time or another. Despite the seriousness of the issues (body-image and sexuality) the book maintains a delightful air of humor. It is one of those books that makes you wish you knew the author personally.

Rating:
Summary: Unfortunate caricature
Review: This book is far from horrible, and it does (however vaguely) make the point that fat people should be allowed to love and accept themselves as they are, however Myrtle's character is depicted as such a stereotypical caricature that much of the potentially positive message is lost. Myrtle is sloppy often to the point of being disgusting, and eats voraciously and obsessively; there is even a reference to her throwing her bloated stomach "over her shoulder" when it gets in her way. These comments are ugly and unnecessary, and turn Myrtle into a grotesque oddity. Overall, for a quick read (I finished it in a couple of hours) this book is bearable, but there are far better (and more positive) novels dealing with weight issues out there... I recommend Venise Berry's "All of Me."

Rating:
Summary: Myrtle is Mystical
Review: This highly appealing and unusual herione experiences life inthe harsh world of high school and college by rising through the ashesof superficiality to become replete in her own majesty and talent. Unconventional and plaqued by the pressures of conformity, Myrtle rejects the standards of the main stream body of youth as symbolized by a character named Jada, a tall willowy representative of teen beauty and copes with her own eating disorder and self hatred. The result is a highly complex and all too human young woman who is blessed with enormous talent and who finds herself in a far more interesting world once she accepts her life as it is, rather than as she would like it to be. Myrtle finds success in her own life through kind if offbeat friends one of whom helps her in providing a venue for her art show in which her work is proudly displayed. It is her choice of work that finally defines and completes her acceptance and pride in herself. "Myrtle" who closely identifies with the prehistoric stone figure of Venus of Willendorf, becomes for all of us who experienced the insecurity of youth and desire for acceptance, a heroine whose courage and self deprecating humor set a new standard for today's young women and sends a clear message of truth to those tortured young people who strive to become what they are not. Rather, "Myrtle" gives a much needed boost to the idea that self esteem and acceptance is every bit as appealing as the picture on the magazine cover so sought after by today's young women. Myrtle and her friends teach us a much needed lesson about life and our place in it. I have only one wish and that is to see more of Myrtle and where her life goes in the future. Myrtle of Willendorf will keep you reading until the last page is done and you will not soon forget this extrememly different and appealing "goddess". Ms. O'Connell has taken an important subject and brought it home with humor, pathos and compassion.

Rating:
Summary: Butter Melting in a Muffin
Review: This slim book is full of funny remarks and delicious food descriptions, but it was the butter melting in a "Hop on Poppyseed" muffin that did it for me. Myrtle, the main character, loves to eat, and she spends a lot of time at her friend Sam's restaurant. He serves up all kinds of comfort food (with Dr. Seuss themes) at the same time he serves up warm friendship and emotional support. She can use the emotional support, too. Her roommate and the roommate's boyfriend are making life miserable for Myrtle with their inappropriate sexual activity. She's also dealing with the pain of a broken friendship from years before. She deals with all this with her sarcastic sense of humor, her artisitc ability, and lots of comfort food. Good, funny story.

Rating:
Summary: Butter Melting in a Muffin
Review: This slim book is full of funny remarks and delicious food descriptions, but it was the butter melting in a "Hop on Poppyseed" muffin that did it for me. Myrtle, the main character, loves to eat, and she spends a lot of time at her friend Sam's restaurant. He serves up all kinds of comfort food (with Dr. Seuss themes) at the same time he serves up warm friendship and emotional support. She can use the emotional support, too. Her roommate and the roommate's boyfriend are making life miserable for Myrtle with their inappropriate sexual activity. She's also dealing with the pain of a broken friendship from years before. She deals with all this with her sarcastic sense of humor, her artisitc ability, and lots of comfort food. Good, funny story.