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gemmak 's review for:
The Love Affairs of Nathaniel P.
by Adelle Waldman
Oh boy do I have feelings about this book. But I'm meant to - this book was written to be a conversation starter or ender. Full disclosure: I live in Brooklyn, and I'm trying to be a writer. In case you didn't know, that's the one line description of the characters in this book.They also find dating fraught and difficult - so do I.
This is how you know whether you should keep talking to someone, once they bring up this book. If they say, "I thought it was unfair to men/women", you're done. Because they weren't paying attention. This is a book about how hard it is to justify your actions to yourself, whether you are male or female. Nate is a smart guy who is on his way to becoming a successful writer, and all he wants is a girlfriend. Or he sort of does. He keeps his feelings secret from himself, and likes to ignore the worst parts of his character. Waldman pulls off a very neat trick here - she shows us Nate's action through a close third person, but when she shows us how they affect the people around him, we see him in a different light. He might think the way people respond to him is irrational, but we get to make up our own minds.
So, this book is kind of a fluff book - it doesn't take that long to read and it's about dating. I found myself nodding along with it at times, because I'm a girl in a man's world and feel that I've been treated poorly by men. But then I got mad at myself for nodding, because sometimes, I'm a jerk too. The point here is that even if this novel seems like a fun, silly read, it's ultimately about how we see ourselves, and the different angles we'll place the mirror at to avoid changing it.
This is how you know whether you should keep talking to someone, once they bring up this book. If they say, "I thought it was unfair to men/women", you're done. Because they weren't paying attention. This is a book about how hard it is to justify your actions to yourself, whether you are male or female. Nate is a smart guy who is on his way to becoming a successful writer, and all he wants is a girlfriend. Or he sort of does. He keeps his feelings secret from himself, and likes to ignore the worst parts of his character. Waldman pulls off a very neat trick here - she shows us Nate's action through a close third person, but when she shows us how they affect the people around him, we see him in a different light. He might think the way people respond to him is irrational, but we get to make up our own minds.
So, this book is kind of a fluff book - it doesn't take that long to read and it's about dating. I found myself nodding along with it at times, because I'm a girl in a man's world and feel that I've been treated poorly by men. But then I got mad at myself for nodding, because sometimes, I'm a jerk too. The point here is that even if this novel seems like a fun, silly read, it's ultimately about how we see ourselves, and the different angles we'll place the mirror at to avoid changing it.