The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld

The Man of My Dreams Reviews

• 
  Julie Ehlers

  As I've expressed on Goodreads before, I'm a Curtis Sittenfeld fan. I enjoy and admire the way she always presents a readable (and impeccably written) tale that expresses emotional truths in an "I-never-heard-it-put-quite-that-way" style. She's wise beyond her years but has a sense of humor about it.
  
  The Man of My Dreams is Sittenfeld's second novel, but the fourth of hers I've read. Curtis herself has said she's talked people out of buying it (!), and that, plus the horrendous cover her publisher gave to the hardback edition (a frog wearing a prince's crown? barf), plus the weird title, made me avoid it for a while. I'm glad I eventually picked this up, because it really is just as good as all the others. It's true there's not much in the way of plot; it's a coming-of-age story, or more specifically a story about a young woman trying to figure out romantic love when she's had no good role models. (Does this sound sappy? Is it sappy when Roth or Salinger or even Hemingway does it?) Sittenfeld's heroines are always a little awkward; they're never cheerleaders or homecoming queens, but the fact that they're more observers of the action than centers of attention is what gives her books so much emotional resonance—and her characters' sardonic humor is what makes them so much fun to read about.
  
  I related to this novel a lot, so much so that I almost gave it 5 stars. Ultimately, though, I can't really say this was better than her other books, all of which I've given 4 stars. No shame in that, though—Man of My Dreams may not be better, but it sits comfortably on the shelf with all the other Sittenfeld novels, and that's more than good enough.
• 
  Sita

  I have been asked by a few people who enjoyed this book, why I gave it 1 star. So this is it:
  
  1. I disliked hated all the characters, they annoyed me, especially the main character's, being inside her head was a very, very painful experience.
  
  2. The main character was also a friggn nympho. All she thought about was getting down and doing the nasty and the opposite sex of course.
  
  3. The plot. Could someone please tell me what it was? Was it just this girls life, because all it seems like is a recap of the main characters life. When we say, "So, your life story?" We don't mean it!
  
  4. The writing, I know some people have praised that the book is beautifully written, we should all applaud the writing. I don't see that, maybe if the writing had been interesting or "beautifully written" I would have enjoyed the book more.
  
  You see! Do not bother! Not a good book at all, if you want to be bored to tears, no it wasn't even that moving, if you want to be generally bored read this. Otherwise just don't! Not worth your time!
  
  
• 
  Thomas

  I loved the overall message of this novel: despite what society tells you, you cannot wait for a man to save you, you have to save yourself. I found so many of Hannah's feelings and thoughts relatable, like how she always wonders which man she will marry, or how she assumes that romantically partnered people have it better even when they do not, or how she finds intimacy in mediocre men to fill the void the patriarchy inscribes in so many of us. Even though I consider myself independent and super close with my friends, as a more feminine man I have
  caught myself obsessing and pining over men for the sake of fulfilling the heteronormative, patriarchal life path of romantic partnership. Thus, I liked seeing this idea of romance with men explored with a fulfilling ending from Curtis Sittenfeld.
  
  Unfortunately, I found the characters and the plot of The Man of My Dreams lacking, which explains my three-star rating. Unlike Sittenfeld's characters in
  You Think It, I'll Say It, Hannah's voice did not feel that distinct or developed. The secondary characters did not stand out to me either. The plot meandered too. While I found the listless wandering from man to man relatable - it reminded me of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, an iconic show - I wished for more dramatic tension or a consistent pulse propelling the story forward.
  
  Overall, a good book but one I would hesitate to recommend to those not already interested in its central themes. A couple of other books that address this idea of living a romantic-partnership-with-men-free-life in perhaps more convincing ways include
  All Grown Up and
  The Pisces and
  Dietland. Also, props to Sittenfeld for including a realistic and healthful portrayal of Hannah's relationship with a therapist - we definitely need more solid representations of therapists in fiction.
• 
  Jill

  For a moment I thought that Curtis Sittenfeld was going to give me what I wanted: a happy ending. No ambiguities and no doubts. Just happiness for our anxious protagonist Hannah: a shared apartment, evenings entangled on the couch in front of the television, Sunday morning brunches followed by Sunday afternoon antique shopping, an engagement, a wedding, a child—all with the man of her dreams.
  
  Thank god I was wrong. Because what I want is not what I need. I want a book to delight, to entertain, to promise me everything turns out okay. But I need a book to present questions and evade answers, to tell its story not in the shape of a line but a dodecahedron, to venture into the dark and never come out. In short, a book must deny me what I want.
  
  In The Man of My Dreams Hannah is no reader’s ideal narrator. A grown-up Lee Fiora from Sittenfeld’s Prep, Hannah is shy and uneasy, world-weary yet inexperienced, not unable but unwilling to escape what ails her. Sittenfeld’s narrators are hard to get to know and harder to appreciate. Timid girls, they all trick themselves into ignoring the depth of their loneliness and the intensity of their embarrassments. Normally she writes in the third person at the most uncomfortable distance—far enough away that the narrator’s thoughts and decisions remain elusive and irrational, but close enough that the narrator’s failings and ugliness reflect right back onto you.
  
  Yet despite how uncomfortable the narration is, Hannah is a fantastic protagonist. We’ve all already read the novels about girls like Hannah’s sister Allison, a thoroughly decent girl who marries a thoroughly decent man to form a thoroughly decent couple, and girls like her cousin Fig, the bombshell, the debauched girl who buzzes with confidence as she hooks up with one frat boy, and then another, and then another, and then another. But Hannah’s story is one less frequently told, either shoved away in a forgotten bookshelf corner or merely sidekicking in a story about the popular, wonderful girl who gets all the dates she wants. Hannah is a nasty girl, quiet on the outside but screaming on the inside. She screams for someone to care about her, to kiss her, to want her, to simply see her. But internal screams are silent; no man of her dreams will ever rescue her. What Hannah learns is to rescue herself. And fittingly, it’s not a lesson she wants to learn but a lesson she needs to learn.
• 
  Jonna Rubin

  Hm. I liked it -- really, I did -- and I LOVED Prep. But what Prep was that this isn't was multi-layered. While it was Lee Fiora's journey, it was also a lot more than that, not to mention a thrilling roman a clef, though Sittenfeld denies this.
  
  Here, we're presented with a rehash of Lee Fiora, and quite honestly, that's all we're presented with, only this time, she's less interesting and focused on one thing only: relationships with the opposite sex. I think that's what bothered me the most. Hannah was Lee Fiora v. 2.0, and it's a shame, really, for I would have liked to see Sittenfeld write about something else. We've already seen the awkward, uncomfortable-yet-gratingly honest protagonist before, and while I can't say I didn't enjoy reading her, it felt a little rehashed.
  
  What I also disliked was the ending, which came in letter format and felt completely rushed and was unsatisfying. We had to suffer through Hannah's painful journey, can't we at least be privy to the events that help her to achieve enlightenment?
  
  That being said, it was well written and interesting enough for me to whip through it in less than 24 hours, and I certainly enjoyed it. So perhaps my review is harsher than I initially intended
• 
  Jenny

  knew as soon as I picked this up that I would fly through it, and not for any lack of weight on the part of the novel; it's just that I LOVE CURTIS SITTENFELD. Something about her clean, guileless style clicks with me and I hang on her every word, even when what she is saying makes me uncomfortable, which happens kind of a lot; what she writes about hits close to home with my own myriad issues. Sittenfeld's tell-it-like-it-is narrators, both here and in Prep, seem to find that secret place inside me that needs to be poked, and they poke me there, repeatedly. In her main characters I see reflected back onto myself so much that is familiar: old bad habits, mostly, some of which are, of course, still hanging around. She outs me to myself, though, and for that I am eternally grateful.
  
  There is something brilliantly refreshing about Sittenfeld's no-nonsense approach; there is something wonderful about never knowing where she'll go because she sees things so much more clearly than the rest of us.
• 
  Ryan

  I know that a lot of people find Curtis Sittenfeld's characters too unlikable, but I think they are just so honest and real that they freak people out. I wasn't sure if I'd like this book as much as I loved Prep, but I think it's actually much more maturely written. I was sucked in immediately, as with Prep, and just find Hannah's insights to be, if frustrating or wrong sometimes, also quietly profound. I could barely put it down. It kept me up at night because I just couldn't stop reading it.
  
  It may appear too simplistic, but I thought it was perfect when Hannah's sister tells her "You pay too much attention to things that make you unhappy" - which describes 90% of the women I know. Curtis Sittenfeld takes "chick lit" and elevates it to Pulitzer levels. I'll always read anything she puts out there.
• 
  N

  This novel covers similar ground to Sittenfeld’s Prep. In fact, it’s not hard to imagine it as the continued story of Prep’s insecure heroine, Lee, as she navigates college and post-college life. Unfortunately, though the writing style and themes are similar to Sittenfeld’s first novel, Man of My Dreams feels like the work of a far less mature author.
  
  To put it bluntly, it’s a boring book. Boring and depressing. Sittenfeld’s previously-displayed flair for turning the banal into something wonderful is entirely absent. Here, the banal is simply banal. The protagonist, Hannah, has a troubled childhood that leaves her emotionally unstable and prone to depression. During her twenties, she strives clumsily to find friends and lovers, but she achieves nothing close to her sister’s apparently shiny-perfect life.
  
  I cannot fault Sittenfeld for her realism. While many authors make their protagonists (ostensibly) shy and awkward, rarely do they turn out to be as uncompromisingly unhappy and insecure as Hannah. Likewise, Sittenfeld dodges the chick-lit clichés: Hannah does not “meet cute” any of her boyfriends and none of them are her perfect match.
  
  Unfortunately, in her attempts to write a realistic romance, Sittenfeld appears to forget that readers are fickle and want to be entertained. Tropes exist for a reason; shy heroines turn out to be witty and cute because that makes them more fun to read about. Time and time again, Sittenfeld would introduce a secondary character (slutty, reckless Fig or thoughtful, Korea-bound Henry) and I would wish desperately that I could follow their story instead, rather than being saddled endlessly with miserable Hannah.
  
  Furthermore, Sittenfeld makes some odd stylistic choices. I’m not a fan of the present-tense used at length, because the narration is temporally suspended and it unsettles me. Sittenfeld also experiments fairly pointlessly with prolepsis, which temporarily flings the reader into the future, only to yank them back in time once again. Though far from badly written, the stylistic choices further mark Sittenfeld’s immaturity.
  
  On the one hand, I know I’m being harsh about Man of My Dreams mainly because I loved Prep so much. But on the other hand, I doubt I would have even bothered to finish this if I weren’t such a fan of Prep. I hope that it’s a case of Sittenfeld attempting to polish a dusty, half-finished manuscript for speedy publication, rather than an indication that the nuances of Prep were simply a fluke.
• 
  Jenn

  I really LOVED this book. It takes a lot to get a 5-star out of me, though...and I thought Prep still had it beat, so 4 stars it is.
  
  Regardless, Sittenfeld is such an amazing author. Sometimes, when reading her books, I get distracted in thinking "she is SUCH a good writer" and I forget to follow the storyline and have to re-read. Few authors have this affect on me. I cherish the ones that do!
  
  I love the flaws she gives her characters. They aren't the typical "boo-hoo i'm overweight and unattractive" struggles (though that undertone still exists sometimes, it's not the main focus). Instead, she focuses on the actual problem at hand - the lack of self-esteem, the worrying about being "enough" that prompts the unhappiness a girl has with her body. That censorship of your own quirks in order to fit in - which is something, I myself have always felt was the bigger problem. Knowing what to say and when, putting slightly weird mannerisms aside in the presence of certain people. In fact - one of the strange quirks she gave Hannah is one I always used to do (and occasionally still find myself doing). When Hannah was in the car with Henry on the way to Cape Cod she tells him of a day in class where she said the next person who walked through the door would be her soul mate, and she often makes her own challenges in fate in this way. While I'm sure it makes me weird to admit it, I can remember countless times I've done this. I truly enjoy the insight she gives the reader - it makes you feel as though you're not as weird as you think. Everyone else is just as screwed up as you!
• 
  Ylenia

  Brilliant.
  
  I could relate to Hannah's thoughts so much. The chapters felt more like little vignettes. I liked how she remained true to herself, how she questioned relationships, marriage, sex (and so many more things - like the way society tells women what they should or should not do).
  
  This book felt more like an exploration of romantic relationships than an actual book with a plot and developed secondary characters, and that's why I ended up liking it: I felt that it was exactly what I was looking for at this particular moment.
• 
  Megha Guruprasad

  'the Man of my Dreams' is the kind of book title that would make it very easy for me to toss aside in a book sale or something. Or if a fellow passenger were ever reading it, I'd jump to the conclusion that either she or her life were very dull.
  
  When I read Curtis Sittenfeld's first novel Prep in 2005, I was all of 14 and it was for me one of the more important coming-of-age novels. And then I came across this one recently, I knew I had to read it despite the irksome title. This is the quintessential story of the never-been-kissed who comes to know three kinds of men in her discovery of herself - the unbelievably loving guy, the couldn't-care-either-way player, and the eternally unrequited love.
  
  But fortunately, it's not another one of those lugubrious romances where the woman mopes on about some guy all through until mr.perfect walks in and saves the day. The story is centered on and completely revolves around Hannah,HER little insecurities, HER petite-blunders, her family, firends, thoughts and actions and emotions and reactions and temptations and...
  
  How could one then not be completely captivated by this personality? ANY personality, when you've lived in their mind over the fictional course of a decade? Even the admittedly unimpressionable personality of Hannah's?
  
  Sittenfeld's writing is effortlessly honest. The events described are those that you'd think are totally plausible, ordinary even, but still curious , as if they belong equally well in the realm of fiction and reality. And all the characters, without needing any lengthy sketches are uncomfortably familiar- not of the worn-out stock character variety, but the 'oh! I know the kind of person that gives me that feeling' variety. The whole thing was,indeed, a proper treat to read.
  
  The ending was, in my opinion, sort of wishy-washy. Her chosen profession a little predictable or overused in the self-realization department (she chooses to teach autistic kids). And no, theres no happy ending, or rather not the kind of over-the-top happy ending that either brings tears to your eyes or makes you barf (depending on who you are).
  BUt hey! Most of real life is sort of foreseeable and unexciting and somehow, having enjoyed the simulated reality so far, I bought the end as contented as a well-fed baby.
  
  And now I'm writing this review so as not to be judged by the cover of the book :)
  
  
• 
  Hannah Garden

  Aw, man. Curtis wtf.
  
  There's so much good, smart stuff here, and then you just throw it all under the bus with your weird fucking shitty attitude about gayness and blackness. It's so fucking lame and boring and just like fucking disorienting, although I know part of being disoriented by people who think gayness and blackness are remarkable is a function of my lucky bubble I live in, and probably loads of folk in this stupid asshole country wouldn't even register the lame bummery stuff in here as bummer-worthy, but man. How old are you, Curtis? Aren't you my age? Aren't you even younger? And your mind works like a small-town 65-year old's? Don't you live in Philadelphia? Don't you live in this world?
  
  Fuck you for using that transphobic slur and fuck you for your weird shit around race and fuck you for thinking other people's lifestyles are edgy or have anything to do with you. I really like hateful, sharp, women narrators and I suuuper love people unspooling the bitterness that defines them and this book would totally rule if you weren't so full of old shit.
  
• 
  Liz

  The main character like in the authors first book,"Prep", is a self-involved, miserable, jealous, personification of every negative stereotype that men say about women. This book sends an awful message to women. You are not incomplete without men. There is no perfect man and you do not have to pretend to be something you are not to get one and keep one. The only character in the book that likes herself and has any fun is painted throughout the novel to be an awful, selfish person. I will not read anything Curtis writes again. The characters in her books seem to push the idea that because you are "plain" looking and/or an outsider, it makes you smarter, a better quality person and more desrving of success and happiness then someone who may be pretty or outgoing.
• 
  Elena

  Having read and enjoyed many if Sittenfield’:
  Books i knew not to be led astray by the bubbly cover and title -it’s not really a beach read- but it’s definitely not my favorite. Hannah is almost too real and her issues with her family and her own depression just felt uncomfortable to me, maybe because I didn’t feel invested in her as a protagonist. It just felt like this book, much like Hannag, was spinning its wherls.
• 
  PopShocker

  Once again Curtis Sittenfeld has reached down into my pool of former insecurities and returned them right back to the surface. The strangest thing about reading Sittenfeld for me so far (I've only read Prep and now Man of My Dreams) is that it's fleetingly awful and wickedly wonderful all at the same time. For those of us who can identify with her neurotic main characters, in this case the main character of Hannah, there are moments where you want to shut the book because the author is hitting so close to home. You almost begin to feel you’re reading one the high school diary you hid under the bed.
  
  Hannah, from day one, is traveling along in life and occasionally having an awkward encounter with a boy or a decidedly average relationship. All the while she is dealing with her family and friends and her own personal self defeatist attitude. She believes she only deserves up to a certain level and nothing more, be it with men, friends, interactions with strangers, self promotion. She does not set high standards for herself or anyone around her and it is because of this that she struggles through her world trying to find out where she belongs.
  
  I think that those who have always been innately confident in who they are will not appreciate this book as I have however for those of us who lacked confidence for many years of our young lives – we are the ones who should be reading and appreciating The Man of My Dreams.
• 
  C. Janelle

  I'm not sure what it is I don't like about Sittenfeld's novels. I didn't like Prep all that much, but others seem to enjoy her work, so I thought I'd give The Man of My Dreams a try. It was OK. Quick read. Could be nice on an airplane or as a book to keep in your bag to read while you wait in line or at the doctor's office. It just didn't really grab me. I didn't like really any of the characters, didn't empathize with them. At best, I felt sorry for them. Mostly I just wanted them to stop their whining. As with Prep, the main reaction I had was one of discomfort watching the rather pitiful protagonist make the mistakes that I think we all, to some degree or another, make during our teens and early twenties. I just don't find it enjoyable to revisit that discomfort and lack of self-assurance. And frankly, I don't find the retelling of the personal journey all that interesting.
  
  I also find it entirely unrealistic that the older sister would have left her four-month-old child in San Francisco to travel to Boston to help her sister move. It didn't seem to follow her personality at all and did not endear her to me as a character at all (and I'm fairly certain Allison's willingness to help Hannah was supposed to show what a good sister she was, not cast doubts on her as a mother).
• 
  Erica

  As soon as I finished Prep, I immediately put this book on hold. It's Curtis Sittenfeld's second book and it just came out in May. After I finished Matilda, I started this book. I went into it with high expectations and it didn't catch me quite as quickly as Prep but then again it isn't the same book and I wouldn't want it to be. Over the last few days this book has really caught me and I'm loving it. I find myself, once again, really identifying with the main character Hannah. She's making so many of the mistakes that I made when I was dating, although I don't think I made my opinions as public as she does. I'm starting to really love this book, too. The woman at work that I recommended Prep to (which she loves), I told her to wait a few months before reading The Man of My Dreams because it's good but it might be overshadowed by Prep.
  
  June 15, 2006: This book didn't disappoint in the end. Once again, I felt like I could have been friends with Hannah. I also really missed Lee from Prep when I had finished it and I really miss Hannah, too. It's going to be hard to wait for Curtis Sittenfeld's next book since this one just came out.
• 
  Geraldine

  I read this book under protest, because I hated "Prep" (what a letdown after all the hype, especially since I've been obsessed with boarding school since reading "A Little Princess" at age six. Plus, I secretly resent people who are not much older than I am, yet manage to write bestsellers.) However, I can't get a library card until I can prove that I live in this godforsaken state, so I bought it for three bucks. Anyway, I thought it was lightyears better than "Prep," which sold way more copies and got much more attention. The NYT described the main character as a "female Charlie Brown," which is pretty accurate in that she's a wallflower who hates herself without being at all whiny about it. I don't know, I just LIKE that in a girl! Okay, so the book was too long and the middle section dragged a lot, plus Sittenfeld bends over backwards pinning the narrator's entire personality on a crappy dad. But I thought she did a wonderful job portraying the main character's depression, anxieties, and feelings of exclusion--not particularly entertaining things to read about--and resisted the urge to chick-lit-ize the ending.
• 
  Lila

  I listened to the audiobook at the gym. Initially I grabbed it off the free table at Word Bookstore in Greenpoint, BK when I saw that Anne Heche narrated it, and I'm sort of sickly drawn to her. Plus, people love Prep, which i still haven't read. Turns out, Anne Heche's not so good at New Zealand accents. Also, at making protagonists or any other characters even remotely sympathetic - her voice is so scratchy and sharp, and she makes all the women either sound pathetic, mean, or Valley. Heche signifies that a man is speaking dialogue by lowering her voice to sound caveman-ish. I made it thru the whole thing by listening because, what the hell, it's okay for the gym, but I definitely would've quit if I were READING it. This book was infuriating in its mediocrity, unoriginality, and depressing-ness. The protagonist is a low-self esteem loser who's ALSO selfish and childish. It's impossible to root for her. AND she doesn't find happiness.
  This book sucked! Don't read it!
  A poverty-stricken woman's Girl's Guide to To Hunting and Fishing.
• 
  Melissa

  Wow. I just finished this book and am dumbfounded by how emotional of a read this was. It actually made me uncomfortable at times. I don't think this is the book I would highly recommend to any of my friends to read. It would have to be their own find and I think that says something about me (for those of you who have read this book). I gave this book four stars because it is a wonderful story and well written and the ending was perfection. I have not read any of Sittenfeld's books before and am looking forward to reading American Wife and Prep because they seem to have better reviews than this book. I think many of the bad reviews I see here on Goodreads may be bad because the subject touches on issues that are raw and the characters are somewhat unforgivable for who they are.
• 
  Dawn

  I was disappointed with this book because well the title states man of my dreams, and she never met one. The one sure thing I expected to happen and no. Moving on to my next book, a definite no for Carly.
• 
  Jane

  OK, this is embarrassing. I didn't remember reading this book at all. I do think I'll remember this time. I was reading it to take a break from the many intense books I've read recently. Siri Hustvedt's book was intense in that it was so thick with philosophy and characters and poetry. It wasn't actually painful to read. Curtis Sittenfeld's books are social criticism...and in this book, Hannah, the protagonist begins with a horror of a family, becomes consumed with thoughts of males, her own inadequacy, and sex. I can see why some readers wouldn't like her...she's way too self-consumed. But it felt true to my own teenage years...how rarely I let go of worrying about how people saw me or judged me.There were moments that I thought were brilliant. And I agree that the ending works... although it came too abruptly for me.
  
  p.24, 139, 177, 225
• 
  Christi

  I think the author does a great job of finding an authentic voice for her main characters. Hannah is so stuck in her own head and so worried about what everyone else must think about her that she sits on the sidelines through most of college. Opting to go to bed at 7:30 on a Friday night rather than go out and risk making a fool of herself or doubting that she's pretty enough or skinny enough or confident enough. I get that. I think we all have those kinds of doubts now and then.
  
  Hannah would have never left her dorm room if it wasn't for her family and friends who drag her out into the world even when she doesn't want to - Jenny her friend from college, her sister Allison, her wild cousin Fig and even to an extent, her therapist Dr. Lewin.
  
  She doesn't really have any interests that would make her someone you'd want to be friends with. Besides, Jenny, her college friend, everyone else she interacts with is family or a co-worker
  
  Two moments that really struck with me and that I wish Hannah took to heart because she would have been happier with herself so much sooner: * while camping in Alaska, her sister Allison tells her that she's more happy being miserable and that she thinks too much of what other people think
  * her cousin Fig tells her to just act like all men find her irresistible until they tell her otherwise (and Hannah murmurs, "so that's your secret"
  
  Hannah really never left behind that 14 year old girl reading People magazine about Julia Roberts' upcoming wedding to Keifer Sutherland. She thought that everyone else was getting the fairy tale and that she was just Cinderella.
  
  She also keeps that teenage self-centered, it's all about me, attitude through her late 20s. Hannah isn't empathetic to other people. She didn't really care about anyone. She just expected them to be there. She's thrilled to get an email from Henry in Korea but doesn't seem to ask him questions. Instead she's jealous that Fig has more details in her emails. Her take away from helping the elderly family friend into the house with her new stepfather, Frank, is that she'll have no one to take care of her when she's old. She doesn't ask her sister about her own life as they were driving a UHaul from Boston to Chicago until the very last night. She just assumes that everyone else has perfect, shiny, happy lives but her.
  
  It's not until she's 29 and takes a giant leap of faith - and then a second one - that she finds that she can be happy with herself, with life, and that really, is the happy ever after.
  
  I just wish she had listened to the people that know her best - and still love her. She might have been happier a whole lot earlier. Maybe then she would have been able to find the man of her dreams. Because the Hannah in this book definitely wasn't equipped to be a partner and work at a relationship. She still thought it was just like in People magazine.
• 
  Mary-Beth

  Not my favorite. Some of the scenes of opposite sex interaction were so painfully awkward that I had difficulty reading them.
• 
  Ciara

  this was curtis sittenfeld's second novel, the follow-up to prep. weirdly, her publishing house decided to market her books like chick lit, which they are totally not, so i think a lot of people picked this book up off a barnes & noble shelf labeled "beach reads" & felt really confused as they read. the protaganist is a young woman who isn't just unlucky in love. it's like she is missing whatever genetic component enables people to communicate with other people. while all of her friends in high school are having crushes & experimenting with boyfriends, she doesn't date anyone at all. she chalks it up to the fact that high school guys are too childish to date, & she has better things to think about, like school & getting into college. she figures things will change once shes at tufts. but even then, she makes friends who bring her to parties & teach her to drink & she thinks that she just has to be patient & a guy will eventually kiss her or ask her out, & it just never happens. & keeps never happening. & she's not agonizing over it & trying to scheme on landing her dream man like the protaganists of traditional chick lit might have done. instead, she tries to work her datelessness into her persona, trying to understand what other things she values besides having a boyfriend, what other interests she has besides dates. eventually share does date a fellow or too, but the relationships don't go anywhere in particular, & it's nice that she doesn't just settle for the first guy who gives her the time of day. in some ways, the protag is a little dysfunctional, just because she is so determined not to do anything to go out of her way to meet new people. but she's also really independent &, in some ways, has a more realistic view of relationships because she has been watching them from the outside for so long, watching friends make bad choices & get into bad situations. i can't say that this book has a tremendously multi-faceted plot or anything, but i developed a fondness for the protaganist. i kind of wanted to be friends with her, & that kept me reading.
• 
  Jennifer Johnson

  Curtis Sittenfeld's The Man of My Dreams is another coming of age piece however this time written while the character ages to be much older than the last book. The main character, Hannah comes from a fairly disfunctional family, and as she experiences and is faced with different relationships, she's not quite sure how to navigate the complex feelings involved. I couldn't decide whether Hannah suffered from a low self esteem or if she was just horribly uneducated about how to feel, but the character has a difficult time seeing herself as someone who's loveable and her reactions to romantic situations reflect her difficulty in processing the signals.
  
  There were times in this novel that I certainly was able to identify with this character, especially with the unrequited love and the insecurity she felt with her crushes. But in other times I just wanted to shake her out of her "funk" or her inability to process, and tell her to acquaint herself with some social skills. I found myself getting more and more annoyed with the character and hoping that she would redeem herself near the end and while the end is more satisfying than I though it would be, there really was no resolve to the character's issues, as I saw them. I didn't hate this book, but I didn't love it either- I was left dangling in no man's land on this one. I'm giving it a 5/10 since I can't make a definite decision in the loved it/hated it department. This author writes coming of age stories very well, but I'd recommend Prep over this novel any day.
• 
  Linda Doyle

  "You give too much attention to things that make you unhappy," says Allison, Hannah's prettier, older sister. That comment sums up Hannah's problem. She examines peoples' gestures, glances, remarks, and gives everything a negative spin. She's a neurotic young woman, raised in a dysfunctional household, who needs to find her way in a world she doesn't seem to like. It's impressive how Sittenfeld observes the world from her protagonist's point of view. Her observations are quite often spot-on. For example, Hannah watches as her stepfather (who is in his fifties) shows compassion for a senior woman. He later says to Hannah, "'I never want to grow old, Hannah.' She looks at him in astonishment. She thinks, But you already are." That's such typical thinking for a young, immature woman.
  
  This is a quiet book (sometimes too quiet and therefore occasionally boring), a sort of coming-of-age story that unfolds over several years in a young woman's life. She grows, changes, and learns from life. Without giving away the ending, I'll simply say that I loved it.