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Book Summary InformationAuthor: Emily Gray, Sophie Kinsella Edition: Audio Cassette Format: Bargain Price Published: 2003-04 ISBN: N/A
Book Reviews of Confessions of a ShopaholicBook Review: There are better ones from Kinsella Summary: 2 Stars
After reading "the Undomestic Goddess" and "Can you keep a secret?" which are some of the later books of Kinsella I thought I'll just give the book that shoot her to fame a try. I must admit that the title had put me off for quite some time because it just sounded so silly. But I thought that maybe that was just the title. Well, the book is kind of silly at a whole. I know these chic lit books don't set out to use symbolism or to deal with political issues, their humble goal seems to be to entertain us readers and most of the time they do. But I believe there is a very fine line when funny and chic becomes ridiculous and over the top. While the later books of Kinsella seem to stay on the right side of that line this one doesn't.
Don't get me wrong, this book will make laugh sometimes and it definitely has a few moments but the shopping and stupidity of Becky, the main character is excessive and boring. Where the main characters of the later books of Kinsella didn't have their life in order in a fun way, Becky just comes off as dumb and hard to sympathize with.
This is an ok book that might keep you slightly humored but the later books of Kinsella are much better and I would recommend them before this one.
Summary of Confessions of a ShopaholicFOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. If you've ever paid off one credit card with another, thrown out a bill before opening it, or convinced yourself that buying at a two-for-one sale is like making money, then this silly, appealing novel is for you. In the opening pages of Confessions of a Shopaholic, recent college graduate Rebecca Bloomwood is offered a hefty line of credit by a London bank. Within a few months, Sophie Kinsella's heroine has exceeded the limits of this generous offer, and begins furtively to scan her credit-card bills at work, certain that she couldn't have spent the reported sums. In theory anyway, the world of finance shouldn't be a mystery to Rebecca, since she writes for a magazine called Successful Saving. Struggling with her spendthrift impulses, she tries to heed the advice of an expert and appreciate life's cheaper pleasures: parks, museums, and so forth. Yet her first Saturday at the Victoria and Albert Museum strikes her as a waste. Why? There's not a price tag in sight. It kind of takes the fun out of it, doesn't it? You wander round, just looking at things, and it all gets a bit boring after a while. Whereas if they put price tags on, you'd be far more interested. In fact, I think all museums should put prices on their exhibits. You'd look at a silver chalice or a marble statue or the Mona Lisa or whatever, and admire it for its beauty and historical importance and everything--and then you'd reach for the price tag and gasp, "Hey, look how much this one is!" It would really liven things up. Eventually, Rebecca's uncontrollable shopping and her "imaginative" solutions to her debt attract the attention not only of her bank manager but of handsome Luke Brandon--a multimillionaire PR representative for a finance group frequently covered in Successful Saving. Unlike her opposite number in Bridget Jones's Diary, however, Rebecca actually seems too scattered and spacey to reel in such a successful man. Maybe it's her Denny and George scarf. In any case, Kinsella's debut makes excellent fantasy reading for the long stretches between white sales and appliance specials. --Regina Marler
Literature & Fiction Books
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