Shopgirl

from Laura:

My sister recommended Shopgirl with the line, "How Steve Martin can be so convincingly inside the head of a 28-year-old female, I will never know." I found much to enjoy in this book. The spare dialog lends the story a very delicate quality. It's a thoughtful meditation on love and heartache.

Favorite quotes:

He never complicates desire by overthinking it, unlike Mirabelle, who spins a cocoon around an idea until it is immobile.

He doesn't understand the subtleties of slights and pains, that it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart.

Steve Martin is a favorite of mine. He can make me laugh any day. Let him show up in one of my dreams and well, that'll make my day. In fact, he made a guest appearance in one of my dreams just the other day. I crack myself up that way.

Anyway, this IS that Steve Martin: comedian, actor, banjo-player-extraordinaire. This novella isn't a laugh a minute. It's a thoughtful foray into the mind of 28 year old Mirabelle who works the glove counter at Neiman's in California.

Her story is that of her meeting Jeremy who is childish and selfish and hasn't a clue about women...and also meeting Ray Porter who is a self-possessed businessman whose selfishness is his bachelorhood and the fact that he chooses to keep Mirabelle just outside the show more boundaries of his heart.

There is also a film by the same title. I am eager to view it. I have to say that part of what I found so very enjoyable about this book is the fact that I could hear Martin's voice telling me the story. Music to my ears; I find his voice dreamy.

This would be the perfect beach book, in my opinion. Too bad I wasn't on a beach this past month! show less

Something about Steve Martin hosting the National Book Awards several years ago should have made me consider that maybe there was more to him than just the showman, the comedian, the genius behind so many movies I grew up loving. I knew he had written many of his own screenplays, but (let's face it) while they were fun but they weren't exactly Shakespeare.

I think I should have taken more notice when K and I went to see Picasso at the Lapin Agile seven or eight years ago. It was being produced at the University, downtown, by the students there. It was good. Surprisingly good. And it showed a side of Steve Martin that you don't see when you're watching one of his (self-written or otherwise) movies.

I even saw Shopgirl: The Movie and liked show more it. But it didn't force me to consider at all that Steve Martin was a serious writer.

So when I read his autobiography, I was struck with how naturally his voice lent to the written word. It flowed poetically. It sort of made sense that his style was more fluid than visual. At the end of that book, he closes by telling us that he "retired" from the stand-up game to focus on his more serious interests: movies. And writing. So I picked Shopgirl off our shelves and gave it read.

The writing is awfully good. (Dammit. Seems a little unfair that the man could be that talented.) The story is character-driven, and as such, he's got very believable and interesting characters. Jeremy comes across better on the page than Jason Schwartzman portrayed him on the screen (I think it just needed to be toned down a little, J, that's all). Mirabelle and Ray are fleshed out almost beyond three dimensions.

If I had one criticism, it's that Steve seems to have chosen to tell certain things instead of show them. At first, I thought it was a common pitfall of many beginning writers (ha ha, beginning writer indeed), but the more I read through the book, the more I began to understand that it was a stylistic choice. It lent to the voice of the novel, which I recognized as Steve's own voice. He was telling the story and for these certain elements, there were no scenes to show. Period. Move on.

I might have done it differently. I might have made it longer. I might have added in more characters, gone into detail on their backgrounds. But then again, I'm not a published writer. Maybe that's why.

It's a lovely story. Sweet but not sticky. Touching but not overpowering. The movie does it justice, but the novel (novella, sorry Steve) is still worth reading. show less

It's confirmed. I have a bit of a crush on Steve Martin.

Sensory descriptions like this make me weak in the knees:

...the various scents that have been sprayed throughout the day onto waiting customers have collected into strata in the department store air. So Mirabelle, at five-six, always smells Chanel number 5, while someone at five-two is always treated to the heavier Chanel number 19.

I love that I can almost visualize the strata, and I immediately imagine walking through that store with girlfriends of different heights and each of us thinking that the store smells like something different.

Mirabelle (played by Claire Danes in the movie, which is coming up on my Netflix queue as soon as I catch up on Downton Abbey) is a salesgirl in show more the nearly deserted gloves department of an upscale department store in souther California. Shopgirl is primarily the story of Mirabelle and two men: one a slacker type (played by Jason Schwartzman) with whom Mirabelle becomes passively involved, the other an older and wealthier businessman (played by Martin himself) with whom Mirabelle finds herself in an unexpectedly deep relationship. The former is described thusly:

He never complicates a desire by overthinking it, unlike Mirabelle, who spins a cocoon around an idea until it is immobile.

This kind of pithy insight into his characters' emotions is one of Martin's great strengths as a writer.

You know how sometimes you look up from a book, or work, or a good conversation, and realize it's gotten dark outside without you realizing it? In other words, a dramatic change has occurred, but so gradually that you can't pinpoint when it happened. I felt that way about the unfolding of the characters' personalities; by the end of the book I felt that I fiercely understood Mirablle, but I can't point to a specific moment when I began to understand her motivations. As a whole, though, I thoroughly enjoyed the characters' journey, though at times it seemed largely a passive one.

I withheld a star because of the ending. Whereas the rest of this novella was marked by the slow, quiet progress of three characters' lives, the last several pages were composed of clipped summaries that spanned months and years in just a few short paragraphs. It felt rushed and abridged after the patient pace of the rest of the book, and left me feeling disappointed and unsatisfied. Still, I liked the rest of it so much that I recommend Shopgirl rather highly if you're in need of a short book that is mostly sweet but has a thread of melancholy. But if you have time for something longer, pick up Martin's An Object of Beauty instead. show less

A sweet little summer read. Steve Martin strings together a lovely handful of moments and insights, but seems to run out of stamina and ties it all together too quickly at the end.

Mirabelle is the shopgirl of the title: a former art student now barely eking out a living at the glove department of Nieman's in Los Angeles. The love triangle formed by Mirabelle, amp-stenciler Jeremy, and millionaire Ray Porter would seem to be the focus of the story, but really it's all about Mirabelle. Martin has uncanny insight into the inner world of a twenty-something woman trying to allow herself to deserve real love. Perhaps closer to home for the author is Mr. Porter, a man who strings along a series of girlfriends as he keeps his heart in reserve show more for the "real" love of his life, and therefore cannot meet her. All three characters learn and grow from their encounters, but with a few unsatisfying short cuts toward the end.

Like a slinky Prada gown, the prose is beautiful, but the structure leaves some coverage lacking. show less

This is my second read of this novella. I liked it, and can see why I put it aside to re-read...event though it took me many years! The story is, on one level, a simple one: a young woman sells gloves, which no one buys, and is an aspiring artist. There are two men in her life and she will end up with one of them. But there's more here. There is an exploration of relationships with brutal honesty, there are characters who are simultaneously sure of what they are doing and totally confused. This short book sparked a lot of thought about the nature of friendship. I haven't seen the movie and worry that the deeper aspects may not come through on the screen.

Who knew dumb-comedy actor Steve Martin could write something so insightful? The novella has the appearance of chicklit, but really offers a reflection on three (or four) different types of people who are looking for love. Mirabelle is the "average" girl with little self-esteem; Ray is a 50-yr-old playboy who thinks he's looking for love; Lisa thinks her self-worth lies solely in her sexual abilities; and Jeremy represents the 20-something guy whose emotional maturity needs to catch up with his body.

It's not a "quaint" book, the way the back-cover blurbs make out; it's a social commentary of sorts on LA and social perspectives of sex and relationship -- without being philosophical or preachy. More of a window into the scene, saying show more "hey, look what people are thinking and doing" and by pointing it out, suggesting that we ponder over these actions and accept or challenge them.

The movie is rated R, and I'd suggest the book is too, simply because so much revolves around sex. It's not racy, just full of mature content. A quick and easy -- yet very poignant and thought-provoking -- read. show less