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Sep 08, 2007

Pdxstacey rated it:

Sorry Lindsay, I didn't like this book.

The first half made me very anxious and brought back bad memories of stupid people I dated in college. I found myself flipping to the back and looking at the author's photo. She looks very pleased with herself.

Have you ever spent time with someone who does stand up? It can be very annoying. I used to be friends with a screenwriter, he would often tell me how amazed he was at the sharpness of his own mind. What do you say to a co More...

3 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 01, 2008

Deb rated it:

Kind of funny. Probably great if you are the kind of woman who likes men to have sex with you, then he goes and has sex with your best friend, and your sister, and then your mother, and then your poodle, and then you have sex with them again and then you pine over them when they go to have sex with your therapist to whom you're telling your tale of woe.

The protagonist of this novel is an absolute idiot (despite many many MANY mentions of her ivy league background and her attempts to More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Jun 17, 2008

Marya added it

Snarky piffle.

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 31, 2011

Anita rated it:

Can you love unreservedly a book that enthralls you but falls apart in the final pages? I think you can. You can love it the same way you love your cat who continually butt drags on the beige carpet. The cat is loving, adorable, a delight in every way except that terrible surprise waiting for you when you walk downstairs. It irritates you fiercely when it happens but mostly you recall all the times the beast has made you happy. That’s the approach I am taking with this book: the great fun of th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 04, 2008

Jennifer rated it:

Neurosis can be entertaining-- Woody Allen, Jerry Seinfeld, and Larry David have the money and fame to prove it. Unfortunately, this book shows that neurosis can also be intensely annoying.

This book's unnamed 'heroine' is an insecure, immature, obsessive loser who can't seem to get her life together. She drops out of school, loses multiple jobs, sponges off her parents, attaches herself to a man who has no real interest in her, annoys her friends (and readers), and generally refuse More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Nora rated it:

I cackled in anticipation when I picked up this book from the library. The cover boasted glowing blurbs from people I consider funny and/or smart, such as Steve Martin, David Rakoff, Roz Chast, and Adam Gopnik. I did NOT laugh out loud at any point, as some of the blurbs assured me I would, and I am totally open to laughing out loud. Perhaps the author IS hilarious a)if you know her or b)for the length of a SNL skit (she is a former writer for them) or a picture book (she has written some with More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2011

Sara rated it:

I read a book like this one when I was 22: depressed, living in Wichita ks, read in one sitting- well under the covers while nursing feelings of emotional angst that left me feeling immobilized and terrified of life. The book then was the Bridget jones diary. This current version, this him, her etc. Is like watching tv in book form. It seems like the author wrote it on a drunken binge, the plot and characters return randomly, funny stories are nonsequitors taken to the extream. Yet, bad books ca More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 02, 2009

Mary rated it:

This book was funny. And a great read.

Marx has a conversational writing style, addressing you the reader on occasion, but she doesn’t use this device so often as to annoy. I didn’t even realize until I started writing this review that the main character is never named. Written in the first person, the witty and naive girl goes to Cambridge for graduate school, where she meets Him; Eugene. Throughout our character’s not-quite-successful school terms, Marx pokes fun at academe. After lea More...

0 comments like

Aug 23, 2011

Iris rated it:

This book is horrible. Not worth anybody's time. The plot is somewhat trite: girl loves boy, boy rejects girl but uses her, girl pines for boy and loses her self-esteem and self-respect in the process. I suppose the author thought she was being very clever and funny by injecting stream of consciousness musings wherever she saw fit. And [spoiler alert] I suppose she thought that it would be some sort of redemption to have the boy meet his comeuppance at the end. But really, that comes way t More...

1 comment like

May 18, 2010

Snotchocheez rated it:

As clunky to read as its title, "Him Her Him Again The End of Him" is a skittery mess of a novel that just barely redeems itself with its humor and wit; a 230+ page comedic novel shouldn't have to take weeks to read just to decipher the comedy (such that it is here). Ms. Marx' style of writing is perhaps more suited to sketch comedy (where, evidently from the blurbs and the somewhat-autobiographical storyline, she was once employed by SNL). The protagonist (thinly veiled as the auth More...

0 comments like

Jun 18, 2009

Ashley Lane rated it:

I don't even know what to say! This quote from the book basically sums it up for me: "Once you do something against your better judgment, it gets easier to do something else against your better judgment, and pretty soon, you’re doing things against everyone’s better judgment."

The girl (heroine??) is a moron, pretty neurotic, and at times as self-absorbed as the book's "protagonist," Eugene. She's really kind-of awful at times. I got completely annoyed with her and More...

0 comments like

Dec 17, 2009

Africableu rated it:

Fluffy, nonsense book I read on the way to Colorado for a funeral. If I weren't trapped in the car with no alternative, I'm not sure I would've bothered finishing it -- pretty inane stuff. There were some funny bits, and the author had a pithy style -- but the heroine -- ugh! I never did like her and her ridiculous way of putting up with the man who did her wrong. I know it was supposed to be ironic but I just found it annoying.

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 01, 2009

Lauren rated it:

Yes, the heroine is weak and pitiful, but somehow she doesn't become annoying or frustrating to hear about. Maybe it's because at some point everyone has been a fool for the object of their desire and knowingly overlooked the warnings they would point out to friends. Some favorite quotes:
"Our conversation was rife with ironies and I missed them all. One always does when everything is going well."
"He got you in the sack by using a word you never heard of?! I have to More...

0 comments like

Dec 26, 2008

Misty rated it:

Him Her Him Again The End of Him was a very quick read. I read it in a day. I guess that's one of the best things I can say about it. I know others have enjoyed it more than I did. I found parts of it funny, but I guess I just didn't connect with the heroine of the story. She is a woman in graduate school at Cambridge where she meets what she believes is the man of her dreams. She wastes years of her life basically pining for him and waiting for him to come back to her. Perhaps the reason More...

0 comments like

Feb 22, 2009

Kate rated it:

From the NYer columnist. Very Bridget Jones thus far....

Okay, I love Patricia Marx' columns in the New Yorker about shopping and she's had some very funny articles about Texas high end shopping and the kosher process in China as well. Her credits include Saturday Night Live and Rugrats (a guilty pleasure during my babysitting years) so I thought this sounded like a nice highbrow chicklit novel, the perfect antidote to some of the technical finance literature I've been slogging throug More...

0 comments like

Sep 13, 2011

Allison rated it:

Patricia Marx is a funny lady. This book is also quite funny. It’s about a woman in love with a terrible guy. She refuses to let him go, until she finally does. I liked the humorous approach to this tragic, yet common predicament. There are plenty of dryly funny passages that follow the protagonist through various, love-fueled humiliations.

Though Him Her Him Again The End of Him is a thin book, it is a deceptively quick read. If you’re not paying attention you can miss some of Marx’s b More...

0 comments like

Dec 17, 2010

Chris rated it:

I really identified with a lot of what was in this book, esp. in the first half. It starts off during the sixties or seventies, the protagonist is in college, and the way people bahaved and related to each other just took me back. At one point she says that if a friend of a friend of your cousin's ex-boyfriend was traveling through, you'd put him up in your place for as long as he cared to stay and he'd eat your food, and no one would think anything of it. Ah, those were the days! The book is v More...

0 comments like

Dec 20, 2010

Kristin rated it:

Not as funny as I was hoping. In fact, a lot of the time I got the impression that the author was cracking herself up thinking about how funny her writing was. You know how those people are and how that humor tends to go. Although I could relate on some levels with the protagonist, especially in her inability to move on after a relationship ends, there were times when her behavior was so extreme that she became unrealistic and I couldn't wait for something bad to happen to her. I kept wishin More...

0 comments like

Jan 05, 2009

Jean rated it:

This was one of the few books I've read recently that actually made me laugh out loud. The "him" in the book was such a narcissist, he was really more of a cartoon than a person, but I suspect the author didn't intend to make him too real. The protagonist pursues him for years, long after any normal person would have realized that he was not worth all that trouble. However, the little pet names that he comes up with are funny, and the side dramas of the other women are also hilariou More...

0 comments like

Jun 11, 2011

Maggie rated it:

The plot seemed secondary to the narrator's breezy, (and for the most part) entertaining chatter on anything and everything - if you don't like random tangents, you'd probably hate this book. The last quarter made very little sense and seemed jarring, considering the overall tone of the novel. It felt a lot like the author wrote herself into a corner and took the easiest (and most bizarre) way out. Disappointing end, but laughed a lot leading up to it. One of those books that comes across as alm More...

0 comments like

Nov 15, 2009

Diana rated it:

I bought this because of a glowing review in the New York Times that claimed it was funny and insightful, but I think the review must have been by one of her friends, because this book is not entertaining. This is thinly-veiled autobiography, and Patricia Marx comes across as an over-privileged brat. Everything is told from the satirical distance of hindsight to the extent that we never understand why she likes Eugene, the guy who her life revolves around, even after he gets married to another w More...

0 comments like

Feb 07, 2012

Deana rated it:

The first thing I want to say to perspective readers - do NOT get the audio book version of this book. Unless, I suppose, you know the reader and really like her but ... seriously. With the first word she uttered I could tell I wasn't going to like her. And I was right. She was absolutely the most boring, emotionless reader I have ever heard. Not only that, but she completely ruined Eugene for me. I mean, he's kind of a horrible guy anyway, but the way she makes him talk he sounds like a p More...

0 comments like

Sep 27, 2010

Heather rated it:

I kept waiting for this book to pick up and become good or at the very least the author would give some reason for sympathizing with the protagonist. I finished the book, but I didn't feel my time was worth it. I work at a library and I see this book checked out because the cover looks like it could fit in next to a cozy mystery or some chick lit mystery, but I now know why nobody has said anything about the book even though it checks out alot. The audiobook has such a great reader and at tim More...

0 comments like

Feb 26, 2009

Jessica rated it:

I listened to this while working out - and I only finished it because I can rarely read part of a book and just quit. It was a bit interesting but was very anticlimactic - just a bunch of run-ins or events with no-so-interesting people. I rarely felt interested in the main character and instead wanted to know more about supporting ones. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone I know. I would recommend this to anyeone who likes to read just to read instead of liking to read out of interest or enjoyme More...

0 comments like

Jul 27, 2008

Meagan rated it:

Simply put this is a story about a woman infatuated with a total boob, until finally, when she isn't, it really is the end of him.

I have very mixed feelings about this book. On one hand I like the conversational tone. On the other hand I can't figure out how I really feel about the very intrusive narrator. It is a book that is very aware of itself as a book being written. It is a narrator very aware of her audience, and how they may like to read.

At time enthralling, a More...

0 comments like

Mar 06, 2008

Jen rated it:

This is an odd book. I found the first section hilarious; the writing style is random, abrupt, and often hard to follow, but I thought that was part of its quirky charm. However, I can see why a lot of people don't like it: if you've never fallen for or met an intellectual snob back in college, then you just won't relate to the narrator's plight at all. And there are a lot - and I mean a LOT - of references to obscure literature and words even the well-read (myself included) will not understand. More...

1 comment like

Aug 26, 2010

Alison rated it:

I really enjoyed this - another zippy, somewhat absurd read. The protagonist is a young woman (we meet her in graduate school) who becomes romantically obsessed with an egocentric cad. The narration is done by the protagonist, and she is aware of her audience. (There is the occasional "dear reader" type aside, but with a little twist -- things like "well, you've been reading this so you know that, but I didn't at the time.")

I especially enjoyed the voice of the n More...

0 comments like

Nov 10, 2007

Lindsey rated it:

I have sort of an issue with this book being labeled "chick lit." For something to be truly chick lit, I thought it had to involve big cities, a quirky single girl, a career in writing or fashion that is forging ahead, and a budding relationship with some kind of really bland male character. This book, admittedly, has about half of these things, but it's also intelligently funny and lacks the drively, unoriginal humor most chick lit books seem to have. This could put me in the minor More...

0 comments like

May 08, 2009

Stacy rated it:

Too clever by half is the best phrase I can think of to describe this book. I still can't believe I finished it, because I found the experience of reading it mostly excruciating. It follows the many-year affair of a woman who can't seem to find a job or a direction in life and a boorish academic a-hole who uses her over and over and treats her like crap. It's one of those ha-ha-isn't-my-life-pathetic kind of books, but I never really saw the humor in it.

Holding onto a thought and More...

0 comments like

Apr 12, 2010

Phoebe rated it:

My first thought when I started reading this was: Wow, I feel really connected to the narrator, our experiences are so similar! Then I read the comments and saw her described as "a moron,” “insecure,” “pretentious,” and “annoying.” So there’s that.

To me, it was purposefully absurd but genuinely funny. Though the fact that the heroine didn’t drink struck me as implausible because she makes a lot of bad decisions. I might have subconsciously deducted a star for this.

1 comment like

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