Was She Pretty?

I adored this book. Easily read in a half-hour, it's sweet, beautiful and very thought-provoking. The artwork is great, too.

What a loaded question. If there's one thing to take away from this book, it's that you should never ask this one. Was she pretty? Of course she was.

The book is a series of very short bios, usually one or two sentences about an ex. For example, "Katya's boyfriend never stopped sending her postcards" or "Isaac would not let Rebecca answer the telephone in his apartment." Mini stories on one side of the page, sketches on the other.

I can't decide if this would be a great book or a depressing book to read right after a break up. Maybe both. And maybe that's why the detatched sweetness of the book is so effective.

"Margaret felt sick and racked with guilt. But after reading about Scott's ex-girlfriends (and his difficulty in committing to them), what she felt was not exactly jealousy, fear or suspicion: she felt love for Scott. Everything she adored about him was evident: the integrity he had toward his own instincts, his impatience with passivity, his boredom with shallow values, and his intolerance for cruelty. This did not go far to alleviate her nausea, or slow the spool of images rushing through her head. But Scott's past, before she met him, was blameless, and real."

Hooray for the internet.

Sort of a book version of the song 88 lines about 44 women. But from a woman's point of view. All the ways that the very existence of an ex-girlfriend can intimidate the current one. Very fast read, but with plenty to make you nod and wince with recognition.

I was hoping for a breathtaking (universal, maybe) reflection on past relationships and the impact of someone else's past on their current relationship; that's not what this book is. It is, instead, a very light, almost inconsequential vignettes about snippets of various people's lives. Which is fine, but it's nothing that will stick with me.

Really interesting and creative book, based on real stories about people's exes, and illustrated by the author. I also liked the Kierkegaard quote at the beginning.

Dating. I tell ya.