Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress

Rating:
Summary: David Sedaris in drag?
Review: As I laughed out loud in Barnes and Noble while flipping through this book (I read Critic's Pick review in People Magazine, my own guilty pleasure when traveling), the sales clerk asked me what it was about -- and I couldn't say, only that it was so vividly written it brought me back to so many of my own misadventures and embarrassments of childhood and early professional life. Only Gilman captures these moments with a clarity that I never could in trying to tell them. Enjoy a witty ride through somebody else's traumatic and yet totally normal life. Now that I've finished it -- it's about a woman growing up and finding her way. But it's not the destination that matters, it's definitely the tall tales of the journey.

Rating:
Summary: Even Better than Kiss My Tiara
Review: Hilariously told and raucous in its humor, Gilman spares herself least of all in this wonderful memoir. From the childhood stories of having to learn transcendental meditation in the 70s to meeting Mick Jagger in the 80s to the final pouf of the 90s, this is the funniest book I've read this year. If you're down about the November election, this won't cure, but it will help kill the pain.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, insightful and very real . . .
Review: My first Susan Gilman book and I am hooked. She reflects on her own experiences - so real to the thirty/fourty-something woman today. Not only are her stories funny and entertaining, but they provide insight into our generation of being a woman in the workplace, finding self-esteem in adolescence, figuring out who we are, and finding the truth of what we really believe. And, the theme is "it's okay not to be perfect and laugh at yourself" which is a refreshing approach many authors forget now-a-days. Go Susie!

Rating:
Summary: Gilman's HYPOCRITE in a POUFFY WHITE DRESS a DELIGHT
Review: Nothing is quite as engaging as one person's story, well told with humor and objectivity. Susan Jane Gilman's HYPOCRITE in a POUFFY WHITE DRESS is delightful.

You'll find yourself laughing aloud at Gilman's adventures growing up on the Upper West Side in the '70s. The cover is fantastic. It screams pick me up and captures the little girl in the "pouffy white dress that Gilman reveals in a captivating narrative of hilarious and thought-provoking stories. Many readers will relate to Gilman's feelings of not fitting into her family, and appreciate her self-deprecating sense of humor.

HYPOCRITE in a POUFFY WHITE DRESS is highly recommended. Whether you're Generation X, Generation Next like my children or born in the mid-fifties like me, you'll enjoy following Gilman from childhood to womanhood and look forward to her next memoir.

Charleen Touchette Author of IT STOPS WITH ME: MEMOIR OF A CANUCK GIRL

Rating:
Summary: Like eating potato chips
Review: Once one starts reading HYPOCRITE IN A POUFFY WHITE DRESS, it becomes difficult to stop--just like eating potato chips.

Author Susan Jane Gilman describes her childhood which, by the standards of modern life, actually was not very difficult or extraordinary.

No, the drama comes from Gilman herself, a woman who may define the concept of "drama queen."

Her view of the world is hilarious, and her reporting is enhanced by her marvelous turn of phrase.

For someone who has lived a rather unexceptional life (other than an evening spent with Mick Jagger) and someone who also is relatively young to be writing a memoir, Gilman has authored an entertaining and riveting book.



Rating:
Summary: "Laugh Out Loud"?
Review: There are a couple of writers (Burroughs, Sedaris) who have made me laugh out loud, but it wasn't Gilman, and this is how many of her critics describe her writing. Her memoir overall felt like someone who just wanted you to sit down and listen to her because she likes the sound of her voice. The best chapter was the one on meeting Mick Jagger. I liked how she humanized her celebrity crush. But on the whole I just felt talked down to on some vague level; there was a measure of superiority in her tone.

Rating:
Summary: A Wise and Witty Memoir
Review: There are actually a lot of pouffy white dresses in Susan Jane Gilman's achingly funny memoir, HYPOCRITE IN A POUFFY WHITE DRESS. There's the tutu she insists on wearing to school, sparking a kindergarten fashion trend. There are her Puerto Rican neighbors' first communion dresses, which make young Susan "spastic with envy" and determined to become Hispanic. And last but not least, there's the pouffy white dress of the title story, the wedding dress that inspires a revision in Gilman's feminist sensibilities: "I was supposed to be the Anti-Bride ... I was not some insipid girlie-girl dolled up like a parade float. But in that dress, with the tiara, I was intoxicated with myself."

Gilman's revelations on the pedestal at David's Bridal are a lot like her memoir as a whole: simultaneously funny, thoughtful and unexpected. For example, when she lands her first "real" job after college at the Jewish Week newspaper, Gilman is assigned to report on a week-long tour for teenagers of Polish Holocaust sites. Initially pleased simply to call herself a "foreign correspondent," Gilman, who is at most ambivalent toward her Jewish heritage, gradually finds herself deeply moved by the concentration camps. Even though she eloquently describes the trip's unexpectedly emotional impact, Gilman also includes a genuinely funny commentary on the souvenirs available at the Treblinka gift shop.

Gilman was previously best known for the wisecracking dating manual KISS MY TIARA, an alternative to bestselling 1990s women's advice books like THE RULES. She notes in her foreword that part of the goal of this book is to write a "coming-of-age" story that doesn't focus solely on getting a man. "There's so much more to women's lives that's worthy of attention and ridicule," she writes. And indeed, Gilman's memoir will have the most appeal for other young(ish) women, who will see themselves in Gilman's own awkward adolescence and questionable career development, as well as in her struggles to define herself in the wake of the feminist movement. Anyone from Gilman's generation, though --- born in the 1960s, raised on the pop culture and pop psychology of the 1970s --- will laugh out loud at the cultural references Gilman sprinkles liberally throughout her memoir.

HYPOCRITE IN A POUFFY WHITE DRESS starts with Gilman's preschool years and ends in 2001, as she begins a new phase of her life --- happily married and living in Geneva, Switzerland. One can only hope that Gilman will continue to chronicle this next chapter of her life in books as smart and funny as this one.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl


Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: There are some funny turns of phrase and a few humourous stories in here. But the smug, politically correct tone of the author quickly begins to wear and becomes nauseating before the reader even reaches the half-way point. Don't bother.

Rating:
Summary: Brillant Voice and heartwarming stories
Review: What a find. I picked this book up spontaneously and could not but it down. Gilman takes everyday occurences in every person's life and ties together a string of tales that everyone can relate too. All the time, she keeps her voice fresh and irreverent. A something a bit more high brow than the typicl chick-lit and REd Dress Inc type books, but still provacative and entrancing. If you like this book, you will also like Laurie Natoro.

Rating:
Summary: Deserves the 6th star!
Review: With five other books on my bedside table, why can't I put this one down? Because I'm so drawn into this book that it feels like I'm living it myself. Susan Jane Gilman not only expertly draws the pictures, but reaches out a hand and pulls you into them. At times hilarious and at others so close to home that I feel the embarassment of being the "different" kid in school all over again, she hits the mark. I loved Kiss My Tiara, and like loving two kids ("I don't love him more than you, I love you differently...) this one has found its own home in my heart. Thanks again Ms. Gilman!