Shopgirl: A Novella
by Steve Martin
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Book Reviews of Shopgirl: A Novella
Book Review: Love Steve Martin as an author
Summary: 5 Stars
I am generally leery of any book written by an actor or singer. Actually, I am leery of any medium made by an artist that usually does something else. I admit that I saw the movie first. I didn't think that I would like it, but the synopsis seemed interesting and I had recently realized that I liked Steve Martin and I love most of what Claire Danes does. I loved the movie, and I was blown away that Steve Martin could write such a gem.
I didn't rush out and by the book despite my appreciation for the movie . Whenever I was at a bookstore, I would pick it up and look at. I would flip through it and then put it down. Books seem to get more expensive, so I tend to be more selective of what I buy, and I didn't think that Shopgirl would be a wise investment. It's a short book, only 144 pages or so. I can rip through that many pages in a couple of hours. Eventually, I gave into the urge and picked it up and took it home. I didn't regret the purchase, like countless others that I have made in the heat of the moment.
Steve Martin can write. I grew to love all the characters in a matter of a few pages. Mirabelle is lonely and depressed and spends her days at Neiman Marcus selling gloves. She does little more than lean against the glass counter all day. She understands that she should be doing more in life, but she seems to have accepted a life where she is merely a bystander. She spends her nights drawing dead things and talking to her cats as she waits for her life to start. She dates Jeremy, who at first glance is the epitome of a loser, and then Ray Porter, a successful man who wants to possess her with no strings attached. Each interaction between the characters adds layers of dimension to all of them and at the end of the book, you are left with three very real people. Steve Martin truly has a talent with characterization, and his word choice and phrasing is wonderful. With such insight, it makes you want to crawl into Steve Martin's head and live in there for a while. The end of the book comes much too soon, but the ending leaves you "mostly" content with the future that seems to be laid out for the characters. It is a beautiful and well written little book. It's like a small bite of something delicious. It's worth it.
Book Review: "Shopgirl"
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a story about a relationship; a relationship between a young woman of twenty- eight and a middle-aged man of fifty, but I guarantee this will be like no other book you have read. This book contains passion, the highs and lows of life, the LA scene, the San Francisco scene, a millionaire, a poor girl struggling to get by in her boring life. It contains, love, true love in its vibrant form.
Literature has been created right here in LA by a talented actor and former Cal State Long Beach student, Steve Martin. Shopgirl is a book that will be remembered for a long time for the simple reason that it remains true to its character, its plot, and its actions in every way. When you read his charming words, you become his characters, smiling at their happiness, feeling sad at their depressions.
As I said, this involves a middle-aged man and a young woman who meet and sort of fall in love, except they realize this isn't true love. He's a millionaire who often comes down to LA from Seattle to do business. He's not married and takes great enjoyment in sleeping with a girl in every town. She's a girl long out of college, struggling to be an artist, working at a nondescript store in a nondescript mall. Then they meet and the reader is taken on a journey of unique proportions.
Shopgirl should (and likely will) become a necessary text for creative writing classes. Two amazing characters are created in this book, and as the reader delves further into their respective psyches, they begin to learn how said character will act and react. The characters' descriptions are so complete that I have yet to see this replicated in another book.
Shopgirl is also the sort of book you can read over and over, and still never become bored with. The words are beautifully well chosen. The similes are partially dry, but present a great perspective to the setting. The jokes are humorous and their origins possible only from the mind of Steve Martin. The story is priceless.
Originally published on February 19 2001 ŠAlex C. Telander.
Originally published in the Long Beach Union.
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Book Review: A window into the L.A. of the elegant (and those who serve them)
Summary: 3 Stars
Frankly, heft was the deciding factor in my decision to read Shopgirl. It's a slip of a novel -- a novella, as the cover proclaims -- slight and ever-so-slightly precious, like most self-proclaimed novellas. It feels good in the hand, though, much like I imagine the gloves that introduce its two main characters must feel.
It is undeniably elegant on the inside as well, both in its faintly-stilted prose and the strange, spare atmosphere it conjures up. Shopgirl evokes a Los Angeles more like the one depicted in 1950s L.A. Confidential than the post-millenial version I tool through daily. The archetypes are modern, but they feel quaint, like girdled Suzy Parkers instead of juicy Carmen Electras.
It's not so much that the characters are unreal as it is they are remote--real seen through glass, real seen from one cool remove. What the novel(la) did more than anything was make me want to see the movie; I wanted to see actors inhabit these characters and bring them to life because I could not connect with them on the page: this Seattle millionaire, this alt.rockboy, this Silver Lake artist/shopgirl. Everything is a clean, sleek surface, with no grubby human bits to grab onto.
Steve Martin has the dark side down, like most funny people. He sketches out a sad, beautiful, believable story of two people running up hard against their limitations. But like Capote, it's curiously unaffecting given what the characters are going through. I suspect Martin is a fan of order, and imposes it where he can, thinking the discipline serves the storytelling.
But it's the mess that makes a good story interesting. A writer can clean it up; a writer and director and editor can't.
Which is why I enjoyed reading Shopgirl. And probably why I enjoyed Shopgirl, the movie, just a little bit more.
Book Review: Lost in Neiman Marcus (3.25 *s)
Summary: 3 Stars
This short book is a reasonable attempt by the author to offer commentary on the disaffections of modernity through stereotypical characters: the cute and pleasant, underemployed retail girl who has to operate on anti-depressants to handle her dead-end job and life; the wealthy middle-aged man who can only buy pseudo-relationships; the cynical, yet desperate, girl who is in a race with the years to remake and sell herself; and the self-absorbed, clueless techie.
The author's focus is on Mirabelle, a 28 year old from Vermont, who is totally bored in her job at the glove counter in the Neiman Marcus store in Beverly Hills. She has a Masters in fine arts, but finds it to be an immense struggle to find a way to utilize her artistic talents or to meet desirable guys. The low point in her life has to be the inept, unappreciated relationship she has with the techie Jeremy who she meets in a laundromat.
Enter Ray Porter, a wealthy entrepreneur, who just happens to notice Mirabelle one day in her store. Despite the immediate improvement of Mirabelle's economic condition due to the largesse of Ray and of her love life, neither wants to dig beyond the surface and admit that the other one cannot be or give what is wanted.
The book is not comedic with one exception. Lisa, a co-worker of Mirabelle and intent on using her physical assets to attract men, mistakenly gives Jeremy the time of his life after mistakenly thinking that he is Ray, who she is trying to steal from Mirabelle.
As said, the characters are rather stereotypical, yet the author does share some of their thinking. The focus is kept on the personal level with wider ramifications mostly implied. Even though the characters are recognizable types, the story itself is a bit contrived with a predictable ending. Nonetheless, the book is a quick and enjoyable read.
Book Review: A thoughtful and enjoyable read
Summary: 5 Stars
Written by funnyman Steve Martin, I really enjoyed this book. After first watching the DVD (which I didn't realize was such a good movie until the last few scenes), I felt compelled to buy the book and was not disappointed. Although the book is short at 130 pages, the story itself (a bittersweet love story) was deeply moving, intelligent and tender and although written by a comedian, the humorous moments was cleverly deadpan and sarcastic rather than wild and zany.
I really liked Mr. Martin's writing style. His writing felt razor sharp and crisp as if he put a great deal of thought into each sentence. Each paragraph felt like it flowed and gelled with the story and that no sentence was wasted. I found myself hanging on to each sentence and was never bored or lost in the story. Although I don't know this as fact, I imagined he had many people help him edit this book and that it was rewritten dozens of times until he and the publisher felt it was just right.
His development of the story and the characters was excellent. I won't go into the details surrounding the storyline as that is already summarized by critical reviews available on this site. However, I will say I felt, well, both moved by the deep introspection of the main male character Ray Porter as he stumbled along the path of self discovery trying to decipher how to love another human being and yet I felt sorry for him in his ignorance about relationships with women in spite of his wealth and success as a businessman. I felt happy for the main female character Mirabelle in her claim to independence and finding value in herself although I felt empathy and compassion for her during the pitfalls she encountered throughout the book to get there.
I HIGHLY recommend this book. The story and characters stayed with me long after finishing the book.