The Man of My Dreams

Critics

• Lessons in love

  The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld 269pp, Picador, £12.99 As she demonstrated in her magnificent first novel, Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld has an extraordinary gift for verisimilitude, capturing gestures, speech and the flares of emotion that can d ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

• My life as a full-time virgin

  The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld Picador £12.99, pp272 With her second novel, Curtis Sittenfeld is cornering the market in a certain kind of teenage angst. Her first book, Prep, charted the attempted rise and inevitable fall of Lee Fiora, a ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

1 Review

• 

  Entertaining but not fabulous...

  Summary:
  "Hannah Gavener is fourteen in the summer of 1991. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah's own life, her parents' marriage is crumbling. And somewhere in between these two extremes - just maybe - lie the answers to love's most bewildering questions. ... (continue)

  Summary:
  "Hannah Gavener is fourteen in the summer of 1991. In the magazines she reads, celebrities plan elaborate weddings; in Hannah's own life, her parents' marriage is crumbling. And somewhere in between these two extremes - just maybe - lie the answers to love's most bewildering questions. But over the next decade and a half, as she moves from Philadelphia to Boston to Albuquerque, Hanna finds that the questions become more rather than less complicated: At what point can you no longer blame your adult failures on your messed-up childhood? Is settling for someone who's not your soul mate an act of maturity or an admission of defeat? And if you move to another state for a guy who might not love you back, are you being plucky - or just pathetic?" "None of the relationships in Hannah's life are without complications. There's her father, whose stubbornness Hannah realizes she's unfortunately inherited; her gorgeous cousin, Fig, whose misbehaviour alternately intrigues and irritates Hannah; Henry, whom Hannah first falls for in college, while he's dating Fig; and the boyfriends who love her more or less than she deserves, who adore her or break her heart. By the time she's in her late twenties, Hannah has finally figured out what she wants most - but she doesn't know yet whether she'll find the courage to go after it."--BOOK JACKET. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

  My thoughts:

  Curtis Sittenfeld's sophomore novel does not wow, yet does not disappoint, either. I (alone, probably) was not a fan of "Prep" and am glad I gave Sittenfeld a second chance. "The Man of my Dreams" is a poignant tale of a young woman who tries to define herself through romantic relationships, friendships, and how she fits into her family. The heroine, Hannah, is strikingly similar to Lee Fiora, Prep's narrator; however, Hannah actually grows as a character.

  Although Sittenfeld wants to be taken seriously...

  "To suggest that another woman's ostensibly literary novel is chick lit feels catty, not unlike calling another woman a slut -- doesn't the term basically bring down all of us?"
  (Sittenfeld, Curtis. (June 5, 2005)."The Wonder Spot: Sophie's Choices." The New York Times.)

  ...I still consider her work chick lit.

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Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Others 352 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0552776831
• ISBN-13: 9780552776837
• Publisher: Black Swan
• Pub date: Jan 03, 2011
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio CD and eBook

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