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Whistle Stopper - I Was Told There'd Be Cake
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List Price: $14.00
Our Price: $7.46
Your Save: $ 6.54 ( 47% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.6
EAN: 9781594483066
ISBN: 159448306X
Label: Riverhead Trade
Manufacturer: Riverhead Trade
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 240
Publication Date: 2008-04-01
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Studio: Riverhead Trade
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Too good?
Comment: Perhaps the real Sloane Crosley is a transgendered junkie raised in foster homes by abusive religious fanatics. One never knows these days (and maybe not just these days, if you think of Daniel Defoe faking it). Anyway she writes in the persona of a young, healthy, good-looking heterosexual with Westchester parents, a New England College, and a Manhattan job. These are handicaps for the vendor of comic reminiscences, but Crosley overcomes them nobly, and was able to make me laugh out loud at several points. She makes the most of the childhood traumata of having an unusual name and being assigned the second best bedroom. Would Augusten Burroughs have managed as well with such scant material? He had it made.
I was about to conclude with commiserating her for the fact that humor is a tough competitive market, and that even the most brilliant satire ends up on the reminder tables if it ever makes print, but I see that she's in the Amazon top one hundred bestseller list. No theodicy is needed.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Reading for a Light Dinner Alone
Comment: Bravo to Sloane Crosley, who has achieved an incredibly high sales ranking for her debut book. This collection of humorous and sometimes-surprisingly-insightful essays has the sort of edge that cuts profoundly with anyone who has a funny bone, remembers their 20s, or simply refuses to grow older than twenty four in their minds. It's best read alone where you can laugh out loud as long and hard as you want; I recommend over a light dinner alone, when you can mindlessly chew in one world while cavhorting through another with a fantastic, fresh new tour guide.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A writer worth watching
Comment: I was drawn to this book because the pull quote on the cover said it was in the tradition of Sederis and Vowell. While I am glad I read it, it is not a must read. Crosley is talented but can be predictable and cliché. She lacks self-awareness. At the same time, she's terribly funny (she even pulls off mean funny), gutsy and admirably self-confident. She's best when she is honest and generous. I look forward to reading more of her work and watching her grow as a writer. As for this book, it would have benefitted from a tougher editor.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Witty and Unpretentious
Comment: I immediately fell in love with Sloane. I felt the book was a conversation that we were having-- and a hilarious one at that. I believe that she writes the way she speaks, completely disarming and so pleasant. I fell in love with her.
A quick read, very funny. I was sorry it had to end.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I was told it'd be funny...
Comment: ...and it really was! Sloane's stories are not only hilarious (to which we all can relate), but as a writer myself, her voice and wit are to be jealous of! It is refreshing to read such a young, yet matured author who tells her stories with humor and intelligence. A must read for any woman who has ever existed in a social setting!
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Editorial Reviews:
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Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions-or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character that's aiming for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. I Was Told There'd Be Cake introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.
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