Tonight we discussed Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster.
Bitter is the New Black : Confessions of a Condescending, Egomaniacal, Self-Centered Smartass,Or, Why You Should Never Carry A Prada Bag to the Unemployment Office:
Mine is the story of how a former haughty ex-sorority girl went from having a household income of almost a quarter million dollars to being evicted from a ghetto apartment...
My life's a modern Greek Tragedy, as defined by Roger Dunkle in The Classical Origins of Western Culture: a story in which "the central character, called a tragic protagonist or hero, suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental and therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected."
In other words? The bitch had it coming.
And I am that bitch.
Right. Well, there's certainly truth in advertising here. My favorite part was the line at the end where she says, "I think it's obvious at this point that I haven't learned a damn thing."
That's true too!
Jen Lancaster is funny. Her book is well-paced and interesting. She's incredibly shallow and mean and utterly lacks compassion for others, and she's OK with that.
Personally, I think we've got too much of that in our society as it is, and yet another book suggesting that it's OK to be that way, well, I have a hard time getting on board with that.
I did laugh some when I read it.
But not at the (many! many!) "retard" jokes. Hah hah hah.
I think everyone else in my bookclub liked the book a whole lot more than I did.
The woman who hosted tonight's gathering (lovely woman!) recently moved. It's been said, and it's very true, that St. Louis is a community of neighborhoods. We have many, many suburbs (the city itself is relatively small) and each suburb has a unique vibe. Tonight's hostess and her husband had a huge house in Best Suburb. They sold it and built a new home in nearby Very Nice Suburb.
There's a road named after Best Suburb and the neighborhoods immediately off this road are very nice neighborhoods indeed, as one might expect.
When tonight's hostess gives directions to her new house (gorgeous house!) she always gives them as if one is coming from Best Suburb Road, and as if her home is just off this road. When, in actuality, her house is about 2 blocks from Another, Larger Road and is over a mile from the smaller, wholly residential Best Suburb Road.
But it sounds so nice to live off Best Suburb Road, you know?
Where's your secret Jen Lancaster?
6 comments:
I feel terrible that, at the last minute, I was unable to make it. I need to e-mail said hostess.
We wondered where you were. I hope everything's OK!
That's Ladue for you! and St. Louis for that matter. It is a lot about status and not substance.
Graymama, these are my friends, and I don't particularly want to be kicked out of my bookclub, which is why I didn't post the real names of the suburbs I was writing about. I don't know. I'm not originally from St. Louis, so maybe that's why I don't see each suburb as a monolithic entity.
Teresa, the marathon scene was my hands down favorite part of the book. She nailed that feeling exactly. Except that I usually internalize the feelings and feel bad about myself, while she (claims to have) shoved candy bars into her mouth while verbally abusing the health nuts.
And I agree with you that she didn't change. She just bought her new clothes from Target for a while.
Sorry I made you feel uncomfortable with my comment :-(
Just a thought: If they truly are your friends, why would they kick you out of the book club for speaking your truth?
No problem!
And, really, what I've posted here is not "my" truth, because it's not really about me.
Of course I'm free to speak critically about whoever and whatever I want. But when something I say sounds like it's judging someone else, I have to be prepared for that person to take offense.
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