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The Man Of My Dreams |
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Sittenfeld's sophomore effort (following "Prep") follows a young woman from the age of 14 into her late 20s as she grapples with both family and romantic issues.
Random House, 288 pages
05/16/2006
$22.95
ISBN: 1400064767
Fiction
General Literature & Fiction
All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...
Chicago Tribune Danielle Chapman
Sittenfeld's primary virtue as a writer is her watchfulness; she doesn't gaze at people but pins them to the wall, specimenlike, with her piercing, critical eye-- and usually she gets them right. [11 June 2006, p.5]
Christian Science Monitor Heller McAlpin
Sittenfeld continues to address the angst of self- proclaimed social misfits with unflagging sensitivity and intelligence.
Houston Chronicle Maggie Galehouse
Ultimately, The Man of My Dreams examines the gap between what we feel and what we know in the long, mean march to becoming a person. And with it, Sittenfeld proves that the success of "Prep" wasn't a fluke.
Salon Christine Smallwood
Sittenfeld captures the pain of growing up in such a raw, palpable way, that it is a relief to finally close the book and put it aside.
San Francisco Chronicle Michelle Orange
If Hannah's journey seems to be a fairly banal one, you are not familiar with Sittenfeld's writing: She may not entirely escape the reductive specter of the chick-lit label, but this entry insists that something different is possible.
Washington Post Stephen McCauley
It almost feels as if Sittenfeld grew weary of Hannah and wanted to move on. This race to the finish struck me as an unconvincing way to wrap things up, a misstep, but not one serious enough to diminish my enthusiasm for Sittenfeld's talent or my eagerness for more. ·
Booklist Kristine Huntley
The magic of this coming-of-age tale lies in how it captures a generation of young women's anxiety and confusion about finding love and direction in their lives. [15 Feb 2006]
Library Journal Jan Blodgett
Hannah's wry wit and unsentimental self understanding make her story compelling. Sittenfeld gives her a voice that is serious without being mordant, hopeful without being flighty. [1 Apr 2006, p.87]
Publishers Weekly
Sittenfeld's poignant if generic follow-up to her bestselling debut, "Prep," similarly tracks a young woman's coming-of-age, but rather than navigating an elite school's nasty and brutish social system, this time the narrator contends with a dysfunctional family and her own yearnings for love. [27 Feb 2006]
The Guardian Anna Shapiro
Curtis Sittenfeld has an extraordinary gift for verisimilitude, capturing gestures, speech and the flares of emotion that can determine a relationship.
The Observer Viv Groskop
The book is entertaining and thought-provoking, yet, unlike Prep, it just doesn't create a believable world you can lose yourself in. Good - but not dazzling.
Kirkus Reviews
This novel doesn't quite satisfy. Sittenfeld seldom delves below the surface of the action, and everything that happens in Chicago is narrated as a letter by Hannah to her therapist. It's a distilled, distant version of events, almost as if Sittenfeld was loath to dwell on this embarrassing episode in her heroine's life. [15 March 2006]
The New York Times Book Review Claire Dederer
Sittenfeld proves herself once again to be a rigorous and wily stylist. She writes clear, funny, unadorned prose, and packs her pages with clever observations without appearing to be trying. This kind of intelligent self-effacement is harder and harder to come by in new fiction. And it's a style perfectly suited to her heroine.
The New Yorker
Sittenfeld has a brisk narrative style and a rare ability to turn nearly alienating flaws into vulnerability, but her central characters, despite their acute observations of others, have no introspective faculty at all.
Village Voice Rachel Aviv
The book is more convincing when Hannah is irrational and grumpy, still doing the "low-self-esteem shtick." Her nervous energy is the best part of an otherwise formulaic coming-of-age story.
Los Angeles Times Louisa Thomas
Sittenfeld gets a lot about the fraught world of dating just right: the anxiety, the careful rituals, the unflagging optimism that jockeys constantly with a sense of impending doom. She shows how complicated dating can be in the postfeminist age, where the expectations are not always clear. Her skewering of men is often funny and sharp. But if her portrayals are wholly recognizable, their range is narrow and flat. [14 May 2006, p.R9]
Atlantic Monthly Elizabeth Judd
Drifts episodically along, propelled only by Hannah's sullen musings. Fortunately, the meandering is often redeemed by Sittenfeld's ability to evoke surprising details and fresh perspectives.
Boston Globe Mameve Medwed
While there are far too many "so what?" moments in this sophomore effort, the novel still offers pleasures, especially the portrait of Hannah's father and her touching torment of self-discovery. Sittenfeld's wry viewpoint makes us stick with her story.
Entertainment Weekly Whitney Pastorek
It's hard to say what compels Sittenfeld to write books about chicks you kinda want to throttle. A writer this articulate could stand to exorcise these ghosts as quickly as possible, and spend her considerable gifts telling stories of people — fully formed, complex, perhaps even welcoming people — who deserve our attention.
The New York Times Janet Maslin
Sittenfeld's embrace of the unremarkable is even clingier the second time around. In "The Man of My Dreams" her drab heroine is made special mainly by endless reserves of myopia and self-pity.
The average user rating for this book is 10.0 (out of 10) based on 1 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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