Bank's first collection has a beautiful, true arc, and all the sophistication and control her heroine could ever desire. In "The Floating House," Jane and her boyfriend, Jamie, visit his ex-girlfriend in St. Croix, and right from the start she can't stop mimicking her beautiful competitor, in a notably idiotic fashion. "I'm like one of those animals that imitates its predators to survive," she realizes--one of several thousand of Bank's ruefully funny phrases. But even as Jane clowns around, desperately trying to keep up appearances, she is so hyperaware it hurts. Again and again, the author explores the dichotomy between life as it happens and the rehearsed anecdote, the preferred outcome. In The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, even suburban quiet has "nothing to do with peace." Bank's much-anticipated debut merits all its buzz and, more to the point, transcends it. --Kerry Fried
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We first meet the Applebaum clan on their way to cousin Rebecca's bat mitzvah in Chappaqua, New York, where Sophie ends up sneaking cigarettes in the woods with a handsome eighth grader one year her senior. Yet even this minor rebellion is more charming than anything else; as with most of her future transgressions, Sophie is less the instigator than the innocent witness. Defining moments in Sophie's life are revealed through her relationships: an almost mythical college roommate named Venice; her charismatic yet capricious older brother; her brilliant younger brother; her unpenetrable father; and her hilarious grandmother, who takes it upon herself to save her "Sophila" from "impending spinsterhood." Of course no real journey into young womanhood is complete without a series of committment phobic, potentially deliquent, overly nice men whose appearances seem less about love than about demonstrating our heroine's inability to ever truly be comfortable with herself. As Sophie observes during a seventh grade skating party, "I felt sure that everyone was looking at me and then realized that no one was, and i experienced the distinct shame of each."
Undeniably clever, occasionally hilarious, and often poignant, The Wonder Spot is captivating enough for readers to forgive Sophie's indecisive, self-destructive tendancies and simply bask in her sincerity. --Gisele Toueg
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<td> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="FFFFFF">Wonder Woman: An Amazon.com Interview with Melissa Bank <p clear="left"> Read our Amazon.com interview with Melissa Bank <table cellpadding="4" width="100%"> <tr align="center" bgcolor="B8860B"> <td> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" color="B8860B">Wonder Woman: An Amazon.com Interview with Melissa Bank 
Melissa Bank's bestselling 1999 debut, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, took readers by storm and heralded the wave of Chick Lit to follow in its wake. Bank is back with her new book, The Wonder Spot, a series of interconnected stories chronicling the bittersweet misadventures of middle-child Sophie Applebaum, from adolescence to adulthood. Amazon.com senior editor Brad Thomas Parsons exchanged e-mail with Bank to talk about writer's block, Curtis Sittenfeld's very public take-down in the Sunday Times, and the dreaded "c" word--Chick Lit.
12 completely new stories, narrated by 12 completely fabulous characters, written by 12 of the most celebrated voices in fiction today. Bestselling author Nick Hornby has brought together a star-studded group of writers to create this one-of-a-kind collection of first-person narratives.
From the imaginations of Dave Eggers, Zadie Smith, Irvine Welsh, Helen Fielding, Roddy Doyle, Melissa Bank, and others, including Nick Hornby himself, have sprung eleven enthralling, unforgettable talking heads. Clever, outragious, witty, edgy, tender, wicked....This is what is meant by "original."]]>
In schönster, schwärzester und witzigster britischer Manier eröffnet Robert Harris den Reigen mit der Parlamentsrede eines leicht verwirrten Premierministers über seinen ominösen Toilettenfenstersturz. Patrick Marber beschert uns in "Peter Shelley" einen Satz heiße Ohren, indem er uns zu Zeugen der liebevoll-ungelenken Anstrengungen eines Punkpärchens bei der Entjungferung macht. In Hornbys eigenem Beitrag "NippleJesus" verliebt sich ein pflichtvergessener Museumswächter in ein pornografisches Jesusbild und dessen Schöpferin, bis der Eklat da ist.
Short-story-Asse, soweit das Auge reicht: Zadie Smith, derzeit in aller Munde dank ihres Sensationserfolges Zähne zeigen, Irvine Welsh, Helen Fielding, Roddy Doyle, die komplette Oberliga britischer Schreiberlinge überrascht hier als Meister der kleinen literarischen Form. Vergessen Sie Bono, Mr. Hornby. Der garantierte Erfolg Ihrer Kurzgeschichtensammlung dürfte dem Tree-House-Project auch so gewaltig auf die Sprünge helfen. --Ravi Unger
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