Remind Me Again Why I Married You

Rating:
Summary: Witty!
Review: Ciresi's latest novel is just as good as the last. The novel has snappy and laugh-out-loud dialogue, that keeps the story moving. "Remind Me Again Why I Married You" also alternates narrators; switching easily between two totally opposite characters. It is interesting to see their different takes on the current situation. This book, however, is not for people who cannot laugh at bodily-function jokes!

Rating:
Summary: Can love survive marriage?
Review: Gifted writer Rita Ciresi blends heartbreak with hilarity as she revisits (5 yrs later) the characters of Pink Slip, her last novel. Lisa and Eban, now with a son, do the marriage dance, trying to answer the question that has plagued husbands and wives since the beginning of time: Okay, after marriage, then what?

Rating:
Summary: I think Rita Ciresi has been spying on my marriage
Review: I picked up this book as something to read on vacation, and didn't put it together with Pink Slip until about 3/4 of the way through the book. I would agree with another reviewer and say that if you are reading this book to compare it to Pink Slip, you probably will be disappointed. Compare your life now to your life when you met/fell in love/married your spouse? Not really as thrilling is it? This book is all about the subtleties of what goes on in a marriage - what's left unsaid, what's taken for granted, and just all of the little things, in general, that go into being a married couple. There are really days when a jacket left over a chair is like a slap in the face. Every once in a while you need a little reminder of why you are together, and I think that is what this book is all about. It's not glamorous, or filled with hilarious characters, or jam-packed withe exciting moments - but I believe that was intentional. Marriage, once you've settled in, isn't any of those things. It's about two people, living day-to-day, attempting to remember what-it's-all-about-anyway. This book succeeds in its depiction of those finer points.

It may have resonated with me, in particular, because I have been married the same length of time Lisa and Eben have, live in the same area of NY, and am also dealing with infertility. It was as if someone followed my husband and I around, then wrote a book about us. It was actually a little spooky!

Rating:
Summary: I think Rita Ciresi has been spying on my marriage
Review: I picked up this book as something to read on vacation, and didn't put it together with Pink Slip until about 3/4 of the way through the book. I would agree with another reviewer and say that if you are reading this book to compare it to Pink Slip, you probably will be disappointed. Compare your life now to your life when you met/fell in love/married your spouse? Not really as thrilling is it? This book is all about the subtleties of what goes on in a marriage - what's left unsaid, what's taken for granted, and just all of the little things, in general, that go into being a married couple. There are really days when a jacket left over a chair is like a slap in the face. Every once in a while you need a little reminder of why you are together, and I think that is what this book is all about. It's not glamorous, or filled with hilarious characters, or jam-packed withe exciting moments - but I believe that was intentional. Marriage, once you've settled in, isn't any of those things. It's about two people, living day-to-day, attempting to remember what-it's-all-about-anyway. This book succeeds in its depiction of those finer points.

It may have resonated with me, in particular, because I have been married the same length of time Lisa and Eben have, live in the same area of NY, and am also dealing with infertility. It was as if someone followed my husband and I around, then wrote a book about us. It was actually a little spooky!

Rating:
Summary: Not Pink Slip but good.
Review: I read this book because I absolutely fell in love with Lisa and Eben in Pink Slip. Pink Slip left me in a pensive mood and I thought about it for days after reading it.

I can't say the same for this sequel. I did enjoy this book it was very funny and quite a look at parenthood as it sometimes seems..........frustrating. The book is narrated by both Lisa and Eben in alternating chapters and was interesting to see each ones take on their situation but this book lacked the spark that Pink Slip had even though I still am in love with these Characters.

Rating:
Summary: A must read for all married couples!
Review: It's hard to believe this tedious novel was written by the same author who crafted the artful stories in "Sometimes I Dream in Italian" or the entertaining "Pink Slip." This book drags on with meaningless detail from it's boring beginning to its unsatisfying end.

Rating:
Summary: not as good as the first
Review: Lisa and Eben, the main characters of "Pink Slip", have now been married for 5 years and are the parents of Danny. They are trying to have another baby but it is revealed that Lisa's wild past has given them both chlamydia and it is increasingly difficult. They can only have conceive on certain days of the month.

The story is told by both Eben and Lisa in alternating chapters. Lisa is a stay-at-home mom who aspires to be a writer and is given the opportunity to publish in Playboy magazine. her storyis about a man who almost strays from his wife, and Eben, who recently has been promotes, fears people will see it as based on their own marriage. They are also selling their home to buy one where they can entertain more now that Eben is promoted. Cynthia Farquhar is their attarctive real estate agent, on whom Eben has a crush and with whom Lisa starts a friendship.

This is not the greatest by Ciresi by a long shot, and it is pointless that it is a follow-up because it does not build on the original story. There is no mention of Lisa's deceased cousin Dodie, with whom she was so close growing up, or her overbearing mother. It was a bit tiresome to read actually, like it had no real plot.

Rating:
Summary: Not the follow-up I expected
Review: Rita Ciresi's continuation of _Pink Slip_ will undoubtedly be met with fanfare. The first novel where we saw Lisa struggle to grow up and all that entails has transported us into the future, five years later. The ending of the first novel felt abrupt to me so starting up again five years later was frustrating. As I was reading _Remind Me Again Why I Married You_, I tried to remember why I liked the first novel so much. (All the honesty, the relationships between Lisa and her family, and Eb's endearing but goofy ways) Well, the honesty remains but it didn't reach me the same, kind of like seeing it everyday for five years. Gone are the family members who would have been a great resource for exploring married life. It was like Lisa and Eben were on their own. I miss the old characters. Eb's quirky traits just seem so middle-aged here. The honesty was here but somehow not a revealing.

The book is told in alternating voices between Lisa and Eben. I like the idea of that but it wasn't pulled off completely. Lisa had so much moxy and life in Pink Slip that she seems to have sold out here. Maybe that is the intent. Not once did Lisa and Eben show that they grew to love each other. I was disappointed but there's the honesty card coming up again. Not once did I think about not completing the book. I wanted to see where Rita was headed. I may not like the transportation but the trip was worth it. Just because the story isn't what I wanted it to be, Rita Ciresi stayed true to what her story for Eben and Lisa was.

Rating:
Summary: not as good as the first
Review: Two problems kept this book from living up or past "Pink Slip". As other reviewers have mentioned, the omission of just about every wacky secondary character in "Pink Slip" greatly weakened the book. Lisa's family, mainly. Since Ebb was working at the same place as he was when we met him, I couldn't help but hope that we'd bump into Peggy or Hook again, just anyone to break up the relentless focus on Ebb-Lisa/Lisa-Ebb. However, stereotypical they were, those former characters added, not detracted, from "Pink Slip." Now with the two protagonists having marital trouble and difficulty communicating, other less serious characters would have been a real treat.

I was also disappointed that Lisa's potential agent made an intriguing appearance than disappeared for pages and pages, while I slogged on through many references and jokes about bodily functions/sex. Like in the movies, it always seems that the heroine ultimately has to choose between a career and taking care of a family full-time. While Lisa still seemed determined to write, her potential career as a novelist seemed to just fizzle out in the last few pages. I was hoping against hope that she'd actually publish her book, but alas, the author left that up in the air. How nice it would be to see a book/movie/tv show where the female protagonist stayed true to her dreams that didn't necessarily involve romance. Oh well.