All Is Vanity

this was kind of delicious. it moved maybe a little slowly, but it was like a train wreck that you can't tear your eyes away from. seeing margaret completely sabotage her relationship with her best friend letty, and completely misunderstand how the publishing world works, was awfully compelling. even when slow, i didn't want to stop listening.

her writing is excellent. i'm not sure all of the characters are perfectly drawn (both ted and michael aren't full) but both margaret and letty (the only ones who really matter) are. it's not a perfect book but i really enjoyed this.

This book cracked me up. It's the story of a friendship between two women and how friendships can be taken advantage of. Margaret is a New York City woman (displaced from California) who gave up her teaching career to write a novel. She has subtle hubris (described as "cynical roilings" p138) that she tries to disguise to Letty and anyone else who listens to her (mainly her husband, Ted). Letty is Margaret's childhood friend who became (Poor Letty!) a stay-at-home mom with four kids and a great kitchen in Los Angeles, California. They keep in touch via email and almost immediately I noticed that between the two friends, despite Margaret being the one trying to write a book, Letty is the better writer. I love Letty's writing, but I think show more that's the point. It's only a matter of time before Margaret starts using Letty as the subject of her first book. When Letty's life starts to spiral out of control Margaret does nothing to help thinking it helps her own fictional plot. show less

I'm positive that I've read this book before, probably pre-Goodreads. Despite the plot feeling sickeningly familiar, despite being repulsed by these characters (Letty alone was somewhat likeable at the beginning, but quickly devolved into a horrifying caricature of consumerism), despite knowing this was all going to end very, very badly, I couldn't look away.

That's gotta be worth 3 stars.

I gave it three shots. I tried to read it as a new book with an interesting and promising blurb on the cover - failed. I tried to read it as a novel about women - failed. I tried to read it for entertainment as it has its funny moments - but failed in the end. What I am left with is an unfinished book I cannot get myself to pick up again and shit loads of reconfirmed stereotypes about shallow silly daft ridiculous American women. Help!

Margaret quits her teaching job to write a novel. Her best friend Letty is a stay-at-home mom with 4 kids. The first 100 pages is, basically, the story of Margaret figuring out how to write the novel. Parts were funny, and the writing was good, but the pace was just too slow for me. According to the book description, things do pick up with, I believe, Margaret stealing Letty's life, as told to her through e-mails, and uses it for her book. I just couldn't hang on that long. Maybe other writers would enjoy this book.

Interesting, but I just couldn't get into it until I started skimming. Really compelled me to think about internal conflict about making a splash in the world and having a quiet life.

This was awful. I could not finish it. I loved Drowning Ruth so I thought I'd love this. Boring! I read 100 pages but it wasn't going anywhere. I skipped to the end and decided not to bother finishing! This is the first book in a long time I could not finish.