Rating: 
Summary: Captures the true voice of family talk
Review: I was lucky to hear a reading by Nell Freudenberger recently at the Madison Book Festival. It is always a treat to discover a new author. I enjoyed all the stories, but especially Lucky Girls and The Orphan. In The Orphan, Freudenberger wrote the best description I have ever read of an interaction amoung parents and their young adult children.
"She had not been angry in that furious, helpless way since Mandy was a teenager. She remembered one incident in particular, when Mandy had gone somewhere that was not allowed - she couldn't remember now what hadn't been allowed - and lied about it, and then listened to her mother's lecture about lying, about how it was the lie rather than the dance club or the bar or the party under the bridge, with a tiny smile, as if honesty were a kitschy fad from her parents' generation, like spider plants or macrame. And she thought now that it was as if Mandy had known, while she and Jeff were busy drawing up rules and lists of instructions, that this whole nonsensical era of unbelievable things was coming, and she was smiling at it, like a collaborator, over her mother's left shoulder."
This book is fun, lively and insightful. Enjoy the fresh voice of this young writer.
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Summary: From the "Don't hate the player...hate the game" department
Review: Why is everyone so uptight about this book? It's one of the best short story collections I've read in years, and 100% of my (rather paltry) living is derived from writing book reviews.
Reading over the harsh condemnations levied against Ms. Freudenberger makes me wonder if all the would-be writers out there (MFAs now waiting tables?) are just embittered by their jealousy. Hmm.
Rating: 
Summary: Stands up in comparison??
Review: Lucky Girls stories stand up in comparison to Interpreter of Maladies? You must be smoking whatever the author of this awful book was. I dont have anything to gain by giving a bad review. I just did not enjoy this book. The characters were not likeable, the stories were not exciting, some didnt even make sense. To compare Lucky Girls to Interpreters is ludicrous.
Rating: 
Summary: reader from Miami
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...
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