Good in Bed (2001) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters edit see section history

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• Candace "Cannie" Shapiro: Novel's protagonist, a reporter living in Philadelphia. At the outset of the novel, she is freshly out of a relationship with Bruce Guberman, a writer who uses their now-defunct relationship as fodder for his national magazine column. Cannie is a plus-sized woman.
• Bruce Guberman: Cannie's former boyfriend, with whom she used to live. Magazine writer who has a national column in which he details the intimate details of "loving a larger woman."
• Tanya: Cannie's mother's lover.
• Samantha: Cannie's best friend who unlike cannie is not plus size.
• Maxi Ryder: A movie star whom Cannie befriends
• Lucy: Cannie's younger sister, who's skinny, pretty and known for her failures one after another.
• Dr. Peter Krushelevansky: Cannie's doctor, who she starts seeing for a weight loss program.
• Nicholas Kaye: Add a description of this character.
• Josh: Cannie's younger brother
• Sandy
• Adrian Stadt: A movie star
• Roberto
• Betsy
• Gabby Gardiner: A fellow journalist in Examiner, where Cannie works. She is always nosing about Cannie's work.
• Garth
• Bonnie
• Jane Sloan
• Hallie
• Audrey
• Steve
• Dylan
• George
• Esther
• Kevin Britton
• Kiki
• Bryan Perreault
• Brianna
• Bettina Vance
• Dr. Blum
• Eric Silverberg
• Jenna Lind
• Tamsin
• Trevor
• Ben
• Beth
• Barbara
• Scott Marmer
• Todd
• Gertrude
• Alice
• Ann Goldblum Shapiro
• Anita
• Gita Patel
• Violet
• Nifkin: Cannie's dog
• James Earl Jones
• Ellen
• Shari Marmer
• Abigail
• Andy
• Neil
• Larry Shapiro
• Josie Weiss
• Sarah Pritchard
• Bernard Leonard Guberman
• Lily
• Joe
• Tina Turner
• Leah Shapiro
• Billy Penn
• Mr. E. P. Deiffinger
• Dr. K
• Celine Dion
• Christine
• Joy
• Jennifer Weiner Reader

Quotes edit see section history

• “I thought sometimes that he liked to imagine himself as one of the lead characters in anearly Springsteen song — some furious, passionate nineteen-year-old romantic, ragingagainst the world at large and his father in particular, looking for one girl to save him.”

  Cannie

• “What we really need,” she said, pounding the bar for emphasis, “is to just stop thinking of ourselves as bodies and start thinking of ourselves as people.””

  Maxi

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• Things happen, and you can’t make them unhappen. You don’t get do-overs, you can’t roll back the clock, and the only thing you can change, and the only thing it does any good to worry about, is how you let them affect you.”

  Highlighted by 22 Kindle customers

• I can’t change things other people in my family do, but I can change how I react to them.”

  Highlighted by 21 Kindle customers

• You Are Here. And you move forward because that’s the way it works; that’s the only place you can go. You keep going until it stops hurting, or until you find new things to hurt you worse, I guess. And that is the human condition, all of us lurching along in our own private miseries, because that’s the way it is. Because, I guess, God didn’t give us any choice. You grow up, I remembered Abigail telling me. You learn.

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• Well, you can’t control what they do, but you can control how you respond to it . . . whether you allow it to drive you crazy, or occupy all of your thoughts, or whether you note what they’re doing, consider it, and make a conscious decision as to how much you’ll let it affect you.”

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• “I learned that things don’t always turn out the way you planned, or the way you think they should. And I’ve learned that there are things that go wrong that don’t always get fixed or get put back together the way they were before. I’ve learned that some broken things stay broken, and I’ve learned that you can get through bad times and keep looking for better ones, as long as you have people who love you.”

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• But what we’re really trapped by is perceptions. You think you need to lose weight for someone to love you. I think if I gain weight, no one will love me. What we really need,” she said, pounding the bar for emphasis, “is to just stop thinking of ourselves as bodies and start thinking of ourselves as people.”

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• “Love,” I said, “is the rug they pull out from under you. Love is Lucy always lifting the football at the last second so that Charlie Brown falls on his ass. Love is something that every time you believe in it, it goes away. Love is for suckers, and I’m not going to be a sucker ever again.”

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• I wanted to understand how to be part of a couple, how to get brave enough to take someone’s hand and leap across the chasm.

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• “Did you ever think that maybe these things happen to you because you’re strong enough to take them?”

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• Writing was like slipping into the ocean, a place where I could move easily, where I could be graceful, and playful, and invisible and visible all at once—a byline, not a body. Sitting in front of the computer, with the screen blank and the cursor blinking, was the best escape I knew.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Where Cannie lives and works
• New York
• Hollywood
• New Jersey
• California
• Princeton, New Jersey: Cannie's hometown
• Pennsylvania
• Australia
• Los Angeles

Organizations edit see section history

• Weight Watchers: Commercial weight loss plan and support group

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Followed by Certain Girls.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Jennifer Weiner (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3573.E3935 G6 2001
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Adult themes