“Unfortunately, I had pretty high expectations of this book and while I think her writing as a whole probably deserves 3 or 4 stars, I really didn't enjoy the book until the last 150 pages or so where the focus was on her criticism, essays, and letters. Parker has a wonderful wit, a sharp tongue, and a keen eye, but I found most of her stories a bit repetitive (always a danger when reading short work by the same author all at once) and just too negative for my tastes--her own unhappiness seems to suffocate and/or sentence her characters to stories simply meant to ridicule or satirize them. When writing about the poor or minorities, Parker shows more depth and compassion, making those stories shine a bit brighter. I've got no problem with bleakness or a portrayal of the world at its worse, but I just felt like too many of these stories left no room for even a shed of light. I'm not really used to or interested in "light verse" as there seems to be little to none of it in this day and age, so I probably started out with too critical an eye on this, as well, but even here, Parker does show her charm and dark sense of humor quite effectively. Her one-liners and nonfiction did appeal to me, but not enough to outweigh more than half the book as a whole.”
mmolino54 wrote this review Thursday, September 17 2009.
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