Rating: 
Summary: A fair read
Review: When the hype regarding "Lucky Girls" began, I was determined not to read this book...the premise linking the stories didn't appeal to me, and I am often not a fan of collections of short fiction. However, when I picked up a recent issue of Granta and noticed one of Freudenberger's stories, I read it. And the story that I read, I found to be wonderful. So I bought the book. Freudenberger, has a way with describing the romantic trysts that permeate the collection. I found the relationship between the young girl and her tutor to be beautifully and insightfully written. Unfortunately, I felt that Freudenberger was trying to hard not to fall into the cliched category that is "women writing about romance" in the rest of her stories and I didn't much get into her writing when she stepped outside of the form and subject matter that she did best. I was especially unmoved by the way that she depicted familial relationships in almost every story (most strongly in the story about the suicidal mother and alzheimer's stricken father - which I loathed) Overall, I found the collection to be readable, but not riveting. Moreover, I don't believe that I will pick up the next book. There doesn't seem to be a lot of room to move for this author - the stories didn't seem to be brimming with unrealized talent. It seems that the story that I loved, "The tutor" was a lucky shot.
Rating: 
Summary: Ridiculous
Review: Over hyped and surprise, surprise--under delivering! I'm all about the under-30 voice in fiction, attractive writers too, male and female, but this is simply absurd. In the end, it comes down to 1. a compelling narrative voice and story, or, 2. not great writing, but a fun dishy read. This book delivers on neither account. Yawn.
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I was excited to read Fruedenberger's first full book - having heard a great deal about her after her piece in the New Yorker. I settled in to enjoy it on a chilly Boston evening, and....well, I was surprised that the basic elements were there, but nothing more. The character development is actually quite good, but there aren't any characters that we really want to care about. There's little in the way of spatial or temporal dynamism, rather a sort of a to b to c progression that offers no challenges to the reader. The prose is tight, but predictable. And I quite frankly can't handle too many boilerplate metaphors. I wish I could offer a better review, but there's no soul in this book. And I also hate to agree with some of the bitter sods who don't like the book because they perceive the author as some silver spoon. By all means, try this book. I have a difficult time with much of what is published today (I'm one of the few that found glaring faults in 'Cold Mountain', for example). I hope I'm wrong...
Rating:
Summary: Talented Writer, Trite Writing
Review: Nell Freudenberger is a talented writer with an excellent education and an exceptional professional background, which includes editorial experience at The New Yorker, the magazine that first published her fiction in 2001. Her first collection of long short stories -- "Lucky Girls" -- holds up well as good writing, but the stories are, for the most part, somnolent. Most of Freundenberger's fiction is set in India, and this gives the collection a strange feel and tone that can be best described as reading Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter Of Maladies" in a mirror. Here again are upper middle-class characters who have never had a toothache engaging in immoral romantic affairs with married folks and then wondering why their personal lives have become a case study in guilt, neurosis, and dysfunction. I wish Freudenberger would shack up in a garret for a year and write a diverse collection of tales about the great overlooked mass of average Americans in America. I'm sure she could pen a masterpiece, and a lasting work of art. As it is, "Lucky Girls" is merely the IT title of this one season, and perhaps a figurative description of Freudenberger herself, a lucky girl (woman) who seems to have had her obvious writing talent taken for granted to fulfill the publishing industry's narrow focus of fashionable prose for quarterly profit.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally - subtle, engaging new fiction
Review: Nell Freudenberger's collection is a must-read. Her characters display an emotional complexity rarely found in contemporary fiction. The writing is subtely humorous without resorting to one-liners or overthought playfulness. Freudenberger deserves all of the critical praise she has received.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful, Lucky Girls
Review: 'Lucky Girls' is a beautiful collection writen by an insightful author. All of the stories are touching and genuine, though 'The Tutor', 'Lucky Girls', and 'Outside the Eastern Gate' seem to stand out as exceptional pieces of narrative. 'The Orphan' was a very strong piece, evoking discomfort at every phrase turn. 'Lucky Girls' should be read with no prejudice against the author. It is a lovely read.
Rating:
Summary: I am so tired...
Review: of reading these reviews from positive reviewers claiming that the only reason negative reviews are being written is because of the way Nell looks. Cut the crap- nobody cares. Or at least I don't. But the thing is, when there is not good writing presented (as in the case of this book) it is not difficult to see how she got published since it's obviously not her talent that got her there. (Maybe her talents for other 'things' but certainly not writing). But that is only my presumption and I give this book 1 star not because of her looks, but because of her brain. Anyone taking an MFA class can learn how to tell an a-b-c story, follow certain guides, and voila! a writer is born! Nell reeks of classroom techniques. MFA programs cannot teach a writer's tone or voice or style. Those are things that develop on their own, and Nell does not have any unique variations of those things, she's just a replica of a high college, trying to meld her into the High Literata world. Sorry- it doesn't work. I'm just bothered at the fact that a girl of such little talent got this huge sum of money and now can live on her so-called 'royalties' for producing nothing more than a cliched, A-B-C, dull and politically correct collection that states the obvious- "Incest is bad" and "Oh how there are poor people". I find it sick that these Elitists then publish this crap and think it can pass off for lit, simply because it's about poor people in Thailand et. al. Boy oh boy, ain't it great to be an American! On that note, there is really not much to say about the stories other than they are dull, bland, generic, forgettable, and SAFE!
Rating:
Summary: Waste of time
Review: This book reads like someone's senior year project for a Literature B.A. program. If you want to read about Asia- go for Salman Rushdie or Arundhati Roy, not the writings of a spoiled and petulant American girl. If you want to read about unhappy young women - read Jane Austen or maybe just pick up a copy of Seventeen magazine.
Rating:
Summary: A fine first book
Review: Engaging and clever, Freudenberger's collection of short stories is one of the best I've read in the past few years. It's subtly feminist - she deliciously skewers the self-absorbed posturing men of the upper class. Freudenberger has received a lot of hostility for being young, conventionally attractive, and successful. I'm glad I finally got around to reading "Lucky Girls" - she deserves her success.
Rating:
Summary: Chick-lit trying to pass itself off as literature
Review: This is yet another chick collection of stories- fluff to say the least that is trying to pass itself off as real literature. Nell's prose is flat and dull- no flair for language or words. Just because you can type sentences does not make someone a writer, just as brick laying doesn't make someone an archetecht. I'd put her writing at an Elizabeth Wertzel level- by the time her 2nd or 3rd book comes around no one will care about her, just as Wertzel has faded. (Although I have to say that Wertzel is overall a better writer- and wow, they both went to Harvard- the spawn of bad writers). Readers make the publishers look smart for advertizing this juvenile writing to the world & leading people to buy it. Luckily my book belongs to the library. Don't waste your money or time on these trite tales. Hopefully Nell will go away, and soon.
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