In Her Shoes : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Sisterly Conflicts Explored
Review: I bogged down part way; perhaps the sisters' estrangement was too harrowing. Picked it up again after the holiday and zipped through to the end. This story of two sisters and their resentments starts out strongly. The abrupt career change of Rose from lawyer to dog-walker after being crossed in love was interesting. Maggie's evolution from unemployable dyslexic bombshell to homeless at Harvard to darling of the geriatic set stretched the imagination.
This had a lot to recommend it, but also drawbacks in its writing. The incidents, dialogue, and interpersonal relations captured the modern problems confronting today's contemporary young women in an urban setting.
update 1/28/05: I just finished Good In Bed by Weiner. Enjoyed it much more than this one.

Rating:
Summary: Pitiful
Review: This book is absolutely pitiful. The only thing about it that I liked was Ella. At least she was an honest and sympathetic character. Maggie and Rose were total clichés and I intensely disliked both of them. I have always understood that when I read a book, I must suspend disbelief at times, but this is ridiculous. Rose is one of the stupidest characters I've read in a book in a long time. Sister or not, if someone is living off of you rent free and stealing from you as well, throw them out!! Am I honestly supposed to believe that Maggie, a dyslexic who could not handle reading a teleprompter, is hanging out a Princeton, reading Great Expectations and Romeo and Juliet? Oh, and Maggie and Jim having sex - who didn't see that from a mile down the road? Also, I could understand Rose's changing of careers if the author had made a point of suggesting Rose was disgruntled with her job as a lawyer, but no such indication was ever given. This book totally insults the intelligence of its readers. A waste of paper.

Rating:
Summary: Was this book edited?
Review: The first chapter was great! Pulls you right in, but then...what happened? The story just went in all directions. I haven't finished it yet; don't know if I'm that interested in reading anymore. But I can say this: Was this book even edited? The paragraphs were long, and always included more than one person talking. There were so many run-on sentences that my head started spinning. Actually, I have never read a book before that had such long sentences like this one--it was ridiculous.

Weiner has a way with her words, but that only holds for the first few chapters. Then things just get real slow. And there are so many flashbacks that I couldn't keep up with where I was. I think if this book was seriously edited and chopped at least a third off, then it could have been much better. This is my first Weiner book and probably my last. I think there is just too much hype regarding her books and I know there are much better chic lit authors out there who have more interesting books with clean copy.

On the plus side, I did like both main characters. Actually, I liked Maggie a little more because she wasn't hiding anything. What you see is what you get with her. She's a fun character with a perky personality. This book was just okay. I hope they at least hire an editor for her next book.