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minibookwellington's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
janneyf's review against another edition
3.0
Anybody else have a problem with the ending? I guess we can’t talk about it because, you know, spoilers, but...cheesh. I liked it a lot right up until a certain object was introduced, but then. That last line - a bit too obvious? I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
4.0
Rachel is taking care of her writing prof's poodle in exchange for a good grade. She also slept with him, but because she wanted to, not for an A. She takes the dog home for the summer, where her mother is still adjusting to life without her husband, who has left her to live in Tribeca with an airline pilot. Zahid, the writing professor, had a successful debut novel but he's spent the advance for his second novel long ago and now needs to find a new teaching position, so he sub-lets his apartment to the sister of his best friend, a woman who works in the male-dominated world of finance.
This is a short novel with many characters, all of whom get to be the centers of their own chapters. And the novel has a broad reach, from dissatisfaction in an affluent commuter town, to the misogynistic reaches of New York finance, to the inner workings of publishing and academia. So it shouldn't work. The characters should be one-dimensional. And yet, Marcy Dermansky manages to pull it all off. There are a ton of characters, all of them behaving in the most outrageous of ways, yet they all feel very human. Zahid may be sleeping with the mother of the student he once slept with, and to be angling very hard to become her kept man, but somehow I couldn't not be pleased when his writing was going well. Dermansky has a talent for connecting her characters to the reader very quickly, regardless of what kind of self-destructive behavior they are engaged in or how selfish they are and here that talent is able to take a large collection of characters, all behaving badly, in a wide variety of situations, and make a cohesive novel out of it. I do prefer it the intense experience she creates when keeping her writing tightly focused on a single character ([b:The Red Car|34082140|The Red Car|Marcy Dermansky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1500664369i/34082140._SX50_.jpg|48998613] is a fantastic book) but with this book, Dermansky set her difficulty rating much higher and landed every jump.
This is a short novel with many characters, all of whom get to be the centers of their own chapters. And the novel has a broad reach, from dissatisfaction in an affluent commuter town, to the misogynistic reaches of New York finance, to the inner workings of publishing and academia. So it shouldn't work. The characters should be one-dimensional. And yet, Marcy Dermansky manages to pull it all off. There are a ton of characters, all of them behaving in the most outrageous of ways, yet they all feel very human. Zahid may be sleeping with the mother of the student he once slept with, and to be angling very hard to become her kept man, but somehow I couldn't not be pleased when his writing was going well. Dermansky has a talent for connecting her characters to the reader very quickly, regardless of what kind of self-destructive behavior they are engaged in or how selfish they are and here that talent is able to take a large collection of characters, all behaving badly, in a wide variety of situations, and make a cohesive novel out of it. I do prefer it the intense experience she creates when keeping her writing tightly focused on a single character ([b:The Red Car|34082140|The Red Car|Marcy Dermansky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1500664369i/34082140._SX50_.jpg|48998613] is a fantastic book) but with this book, Dermansky set her difficulty rating much higher and landed every jump.
bushraboblai's review against another edition
2.0
If the point of this book was to talk about how thriving casual racism is in modern utopias like NYC, then the author managed to paint a blurry somewhat resembling picture.
But if this was supposed to be fun love triangle while examining modern relationships, this author did a piss poor, RACIST job. There are so many problems with this books. The overt sexualization of the Pakistani-American character overshadows his flaws as a villain. Because the author is only concerned with how much sex brown men want to have because of their restrictive culture
But if this was supposed to be fun love triangle while examining modern relationships, this author did a piss poor, RACIST job. There are so many problems with this books. The overt sexualization of the Pakistani-American character overshadows his flaws as a villain. Because the author is only concerned with how much sex brown men want to have because of their restrictive culture
booksbyblaine's review against another edition
2.0
Very Nice is full of very not nice people, containing no characters worth rooting for (besides the dog). The story is essentially non-existent, just an exploration of each character’s selfishness. While this was likely the author’s intent, I didn’t necessarily find this bird’s eye view of terrible people with money to be all that interesting and found the ending straight-up absurd. The only redeeming quality of this book for me was the network of characters, all only having one or two degrees of separation, making it easy to follow with mostly unforced connections.
pammoore's review against another edition
5.0
I couldn't put it down. I kinda saw some variation on the ending coming but it was enough of a twist to surprise me; especially the final paragraph. This book explored love, desire, aging, sexuality, identity, privilege, race, and politics without feeling heavy.
If I could give the book 4.5 stars I would though; why did the characters all seem to speak with the same speech pattern- really short sentences and very limited use of contractions? I know the author made that stylistic choice for a reason but I found it a little distracting.
I look forward to reading more of her work.
If I could give the book 4.5 stars I would though; why did the characters all seem to speak with the same speech pattern- really short sentences and very limited use of contractions? I know the author made that stylistic choice for a reason but I found it a little distracting.
I look forward to reading more of her work.
melissadelongcox's review against another edition
Another DNF. This was a #spiveys