Shopgirl: A Novella
by Steve Martin
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Book Reviews of Shopgirl: A Novella
Book Review: Novella vs. movie
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one of those rare occasions where I actually saw the movie before reading the book. After seeing the movie, I could have written down a hundred issues I had with the film. And yet I really enjoyed it. Even thinking about the film now, I know I will rent Shopgirl on DVD. How could you go wrong with a cast that includes Steve Martin, Claire Danes, and Jason Schwartzman?
Today I read Shopgirl: A Novella by Steve Martin. With 130 pages in hardcover form, this would almost be considered a full novel. I find that the novella is much stronger than the movie. One of my biggest complaints about the movie was character development. I never felt sympathetic toward Mirabelle or Ray. However, the novella depicts Mirabelle with layers of emotion and complexity that the film never shows.
I highly recommend reading Shopgirl before renting the DVD.
Book Review: What is the Nature of Love?
Summary: 4 Stars
This novel is a quiet gem of understatement. It softly unfolds to reveal the hardness and rigidity that imprison us.
The story centers on a young woman, Mirabella, who works in the glove department of Nieman-Marcus. Depressed and without friends, she goes through her days unengaged. She draws dark pictures. She meets a wealthy man, Ray, who wants a temporary relationship. However, he grows to love her but is unable to recognize the depth and complexity of something this real. They each distance from one another but remain friends. Ray is the apparent giver and Mirabella is the needy one. In truth, the opposite is more valid. Mirabella learns to grow and reach out for love.
I highly recommend this book. Steve Martin is a man of many talents. Writing is certainly one of them.
Book Review: The Power of Love
Summary: 5 Stars
By penning a novella, Steve Martin allowed the true emotional roller-coaster of joy, sadness, the bitter truth and heartbreak of love to drive the story. Three people from such different backgrounds are each shown struggling and grasping for something - anything - which can come to their emotional rescue.
At the apex of the triangle is an aspiring artist who is a sales person in an upscale designer clothing store in Beverly Hills and alone in all that is not real. Her suitors are a millionaire who collects lovers - but must ultimately keep them at arm's length - and an artist who is good at doing nothing all day.
In a place where image is everything, loneliness may rule the day. So simple a story yields such complexity in the vast parking lot of life.
Book Review: A lesson in love, a lesson for life
Summary: 4 Stars
again, Shopgirl was a reluctant read for me at first because it was a required book for my retail merchandising class. Why? More like a modern literature class. Obviously, the store Mirabelle works at is Neiman Marcus, one of the best places to start in merchandising, probably why I had to read Shopgirl. After about the second chapter, I started understanding why Shopgirl is a book for girls wanting to work in merchandising: a cautionary tale. Then I started getting into Shopgirl, getting engrossed in Mirabelle's emotions. In the end, I'm a bit sad, because of the heartbreak Mirabelle had to go through to come to her lesson and appreciation of what she has. Wow. Overall, Shopgirl is a complete story packaged in a short and readable novella.Book Review: Dragged myself through this yawn
Summary: 2 Stars
I love Steve Martin. But not this book. I found that there was so much distance in the voice of the narrator, very above it all, knowing, and very little warmth. Stiff. Forced myself through it and found myself angry toward the end because the entire experience felt like Steve Martin was memorializing some affair that he'd had in his life. The man seemed very much like how I imagine Steve Martin to be when not "on"--depressed, childlike in his inability to understand others. Then I started wondering if this book ever would have been published if Steve Martin weren't a celebrity. He's got a platform! Let's publish his book! Hey! He will make sure that a movie is made of it! There are far, far better ways to spend your time than reading this book.