The Late Bloomer's Revolution: A Memoir

I enjoyed this book. It was sort of like having a long conversation with a grumpy but funny friend.

I felt like Amy Cohen did a really good job of keeping her tone light even when faced with the more serious events in the book. There were a few moments where I thought I might lose her as a character I liked - mostly when she was ruminating on her married friends and whether people who have kids really *are* that busy. (answer is yes - but you can't know that until you go through it.) Anyway - she kept my attention - and I was pretty amused the whole way through. It is a fast read - good to bring to the pool or the beach.

Eh. What can I say? I found this book in the dollar bin at Books-a-million, and frankly, didn't read the cover well enough to realize it was a memoir. To be honest, at times it felt like fiction. The author is obviously funny and that comes across in some really amusing descriptions and anecdotes (I especially liked the descriptions of and her interactions with her parents). But I must admit that at some point I started to feel like maybe I should just abandon this book. It is depressing, sad even. Though ironically, since I am a 36 year old married woman with 3 kids, it made me want to be single in Manhattan. Maybe I just felt like I could be a better single person than her? Overall I just wanted to finish the book. I found her too show more neurotic for me, and that's saying a lot! It also might have been an easier read if I was Jewish and had a greater understanding of that culture. I don't know how I feel about this book overall, but I can say that I'm happy it's done. show less

In the space of a year in her early thirties, Amy Cohen loses her mother, her boyfriend, her television writing job and even her looks (she develops a rash on her face), and is confronted with what she calls “the biggest reinvention of all.” The Late Bloomer’s Revolution, which chronicles this reinvention, is a brave, frank, sweet and laugh-out-loud funny memoir in the form of a series of personal essays. The first chapter managed to make me both laugh and feel weepy, which was definitely a good start to a book!

I also consider myself a late bloomer—mostly because I still haven’t quite figured out what I want to do when I grow up. I must admit I expected Amy to spend more time on figuring out what she wanted to do next; show more instead, much of the book is focused on her search for a man with whom to settle down and have children. Since I already have a man, I didn’t identify as much with her dating stories. Although they often made for funny reading, I wished she hadn’t glossed over her process of finding a new job. My favourite chapters therefore tended to be the ones in which she focused on something other than dating—the best being the chapter on learning to ride a bike at age 35. This is Amy at her bravest—it’s inspiring and a bit crazy and heart-wrenching all at once.

A slightly different version of this review can be found on my blog, she reads and reads. show less

I don't know where the "revolution" part comes into play in Cohen's memoir. I enjoyed her stories of her parents (especially her mom), but I wanted to know more about what she was going to do with her life after the loss of her mother. Instead this book was more about her dating woes and wanting to find somebody than what I thought it would be.

The Late Bloomer’s Revolution by Amy Cohen is a memoir about a woman trying to find herself and what she had envisioned of her life becoming. She figured she would meet the love of her life, get married, have kids and live happily ever after. Come to find out, things would be completely different for her. All with in a short time period she broke up with the man she thought she was going to marry, lost her job, and had her mother die. After everything she had lived for just crumbled away before her eyes, she just couldn’t get her life back on the track she wanted, but decided to take a new route. Her father became a key figure in her life, and she got closer to him than ever before. She took on new challenges in her life that she show more never thought she would accomplish, and lived her life the way it happened, not how she had created in her mind.

This book closely relates to our theme of utopias and dystopias because main character, Amy Cohen, had created a utopia in her mind. She dreamed that the way her life was supposed to be was finding her true love in her early twenties, keeping the job she had, having some kids shortly after, and living the fairy tale. She quickly learns that this isn’t always going to be the case, and has a hard time understanding that. She starts to think something is wrong with her, that she’s not good enough, pretty enough, funny enough, etc. to find a husband. In reality, nothing was wrong with her, she just wasn’t meant to live that life. Eventually, she learns to accept that and be happy with how her life turned out.

I think this novel gives a lot of insight to the fact that there are so many priorities in our society that don’t necessarily have to be. It seems the majority of people see the goal of life, if you will, to be finding someone to spend it with. I think for some people this fits but not for all, and just because it may not fit you doesn’t mean the way your life turns out is wrong. Everyone is different, and creating a utopia based off what society envisions as ideal doesn’t make it ideal for you. This is an excellent book and I would recommend it to those who think they can handle it. I will admit it tended to get depressing at times. I feel it was this way because there is something about that story that wraps you up in it, and I got so involved that I felt like everything that was happening to her was happening to me. Although the realization in the end wasn’t as powerful as I was expecting, it was still very meaningful. show less

The author spends 15 years searching for the right man, only to discover she might not need him. Funny, although some incidents came across as not possibly true.

This book hits close to home. I loved the way she writes... great book.