Melissa Bank (1960–2022)

Unlike Megan, who put me onto this title, I did not find myself laughing out loud. I chuckled, I rolled my eyes, and I smiled and got a little teary.
This is a fun book written in sections which don't necessarily fill in what happens in between the episodes of the main character's life. At one point, it changes completely to the second person, which is kind of interesting, as though I am reading about my life- and as a single woman in my thirties discovering about myself and about love, I very well could be.
It was a quick read, and felt like an honest one- someone who wasn't going to romanticize things or make them neat and tie up well and have things make sense.
(Though I wouldn't mind that now and then. If I can't have it in my life, at least I can have a little in my guilty pleasure reading, right?)
There aren't any answers here, and I didn't even feel like I had gained a friend in the main character, but I enjoyed stepping into her life and seeing how the imaginary women live.… (mehr)

Melissa Bank’s always witty, occasionally hilarious follow-up to her best-selling novel The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing finds Sophie Applebaum coming to maturity in east-coast urban America of the 1970s and 1980s. Sophie is the middle child of a well-to-do Jewish family from suburban Surrey, Pennsylvania: her even-keeled father a judge, her anxious mother a housewife. Older brother Jack is ambitious, full of ideas, but unreliable; younger brother Robert is ultra-smart and the family’s rule-follower. The eight stories in The Wonder Spot follow wise-cracking, insecure Sophie from childhood to her late thirties and chronicle her efforts to a) find a satisfying job, and b) find a satisfying man (not necessarily in that order). From the outset, we realize that Sophie is the kind of person who mostly does what she’s told, who second-guesses her clothes/makeup/behaviour, who often masks an almost debilitating lack of confidence with self-deprecating humour, who can’t help but envy (and feel inferior to) those around her who seem to know their place in the world and aren’t afraid to speak their mind. Her search for love dominates much of the action as she develops into a young woman who, if a desirable man makes eye contact, her imagination goes to work and in seconds has conjured a life together: children, grandchildren, companionable old age. A hopeless romantic, frequent disappointment leaves her cautious, but just short of overtly cynical. Sophie’s search for a fulfilling career follows a similar pattern (one many will recognize): falling into a position because it’s available, boss from hell, survival mode. Later, as she leaves her twenties behind, family returns to the spotlight. She remains close to her brothers and after her father’s death her relationship with her mother deepens, becoming mutually supportive and almost compassionate. The Wonder Spot was initially criticized for straddling the fence: reviewers couldn’t decide if it was serious literature or chick lit. Readers are advised to dismiss categories and simply read the book. Fiction this entertaining doesn’t come along very often.… (mehr)