Mildly entertaining, nothing I‰ÃƒÂ›Ã‚ªll remember a few weeks from now.

Claire writes a blog about her life as a fat, recently divorced woman. It‰Ûªs navel-gazing, mundane, and not nearly as funny as she thinks it is (and her Overuse of Capital letters Drove Me Crazy); yet she scores a column in the New York Times.

Claire is one of those characters that everyone just LOVES immediately, both men and women. I didn't find her very likeable. One thing that really bothered me was how Claire replied to guys who contacted her via a dating site and her descriptions of some of the dates she went on, all of which she shared in her New York Times article. Much of this was really mean-spirited and judgmental; and would very likely be read by the guys involved since she tells everyone she's a writer. Nice empathy from someone who was traumatized for life by mean comments made towards herself because of her weight issues.

That reminds me of how much I hated Tina Fey‰Ûªs book, Bossypants, where she spent a LOT of space describing her witty replies to people who had criticized her in some way. It seemed spiteful and pathetic in Fey‰Ûªs book, and the same here. Both insecure women using a public platform to get revenge on people who were mean to them. ( )

I think I was the target market for this novel, right age, right body shape, right history and still it just did not wow me. It took longer to read than I expected and it was just missing the humour I hoped to find - just a bit too self deprecating for my tastes.

I thought the characters were good but not great - original but not weird but somehow it just didn't quite hang together for me. I don't know if it just read too much like a blog and less like a novel or I just wasn't quite "getting it"

I couldn't fault the writing. It moved along at a good pace and was descriptive enough but also didn't really wow me. I don't know if I can identify what was missing at all but it might just be that I am done with the reinvent/love genre for a bit. If you like the description and these sorts of stories I don't think this is a bad example but for me it didn't quite hit the spot. It might just be me though. ( )