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Instant Love
by
Jami Attenberg (Goodreads Author)
“We are all walking around this city with our hearts sadly swimming in our chests, like dying fish on the surface of a still pond. It’s enough to make you give up entirely.” —from Instant Love
But we don’t give up. We keep trying. We’re either too stupid to learn from our mistakes or we honestly believe that the next time will be different; it’s hard to say which. Driven by...more
But we don’t give up. We keep trying. We’re either too stupid to learn from our mistakes or we honestly believe that the next time will be different; it’s hard to say which. Driven by...more
ebook, 272 pages
Published
June 13th 2006
by Crown
(first published 2006)
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Community Reviews
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641)
Apr 13, 2012
karen
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
littry-fiction,
hey-shorty
i had never thought much of this book. sure, i had seen it around, the way you see things,but short stories about the love lives of women?? barf city. i don't read chick lit because i don't find it particularly interesting: shopping, looking for a husband, planning a family- none of these things are "me." but when i went to the adam levin reading with oriana, jami attenberg was also reading. she read a portion of the first short story in this collection, and everything i am made of responded wit...more
Karen wrote a review for this book, and things to really heated in the discussion that followed. I'm not looking to re-open that can of worms, but I thought of it because the term that sparked off the nonsense argument was 'chick-lit'.
Chick-lit is as meaningless of a genre as grunge was. It's a marketing term being used to sell some similar things after one or more things got really popular and the companies responsible for putting out more things are trying to capitalize on sales by selling ot...more
Chick-lit is as meaningless of a genre as grunge was. It's a marketing term being used to sell some similar things after one or more things got really popular and the companies responsible for putting out more things are trying to capitalize on sales by selling ot...more
27 likes · like · see review
When Karen & I went to see Adam Levin read, Jami Attenberg read too, and then she totally hung out with us afterward because we are awesome (well, Karen is awesome and I had cigarettes Jami wanted to bum), and was really nice and I'm excited to finally get around to reading her book.
***
Oh man, I never reviewed this either? Sheesh. You should probably just go read Karen's review, or Eh's, because I have a head like a sieve, and it's been over a month since I read this, and I forgot all the t...more
***
Oh man, I never reviewed this either? Sheesh. You should probably just go read Karen's review, or Eh's, because I have a head like a sieve, and it's been over a month since I read this, and I forgot all the t...more
10 likes · like · see review
I've been holding on to a rather sickening view of a relationship as being like two seeds planted next to each other, roots and branches entwining as time passes. You grow together! Awwwwww....
I'm not the adventurous kind of gal, to go out and effectively burst my own bubbles as they form, so books like this are probably good for me. Don't get me wrong, while I was a late bloomer to just about everything, that made my mistakes HUGE* when I finally did venture out beyond my homework and the famil...more
I'm not the adventurous kind of gal, to go out and effectively burst my own bubbles as they form, so books like this are probably good for me. Don't get me wrong, while I was a late bloomer to just about everything, that made my mistakes HUGE* when I finally did venture out beyond my homework and the famil...more
27 likes · like · see review
Jami Attenberg takes the essence of what it is to love someone and be loved by someone and makes you feel empathy for the characters in her stories.
While I enjoyed the intertwining stories, I felt at times lost and at other times confused by what was going on. I was wondering why some characters were mentioned in some stories in which that had nothing to do with the plot of the story and gave no insight into the story. I think that at times she tried too hard to intertwine the stories, when they...more
While I enjoyed the intertwining stories, I felt at times lost and at other times confused by what was going on. I was wondering why some characters were mentioned in some stories in which that had nothing to do with the plot of the story and gave no insight into the story. I think that at times she tried too hard to intertwine the stories, when they...more
The pale blue cover, cliche title and corny blurb may lead you to dismiss this book as chick lit, but it doesn't froth like chick lit, rather, it cuts to the bone. Attenberg's observations are sharp, her characters richly flawed, their dialogue rivetingly honest; love is really only the connecting theme and not the answer. Attenberg conjures up other fantastic female writers. The interlocking stories feel like a pre-Jennifer Egan's "Visit From the Goon Squad." Her wit is reminiscent of Lorrie Mo...more
This collection of short stories--snapshots really--leaves you feeling jagged. Is love really that awful? Are women all so confused and broken? There are some great flashes of insight( a la Sherwood Anderson?) but I felt that a little editorial discipline would have helped. I read this in one day and still had a hard time connecting the dots. Maybe the stories are supposed to stand on their own, but then why all the overlap?
Some of the stories were simple, and I was a little confused as to their purpose. At the end your realize that they're all intertwined. It's a little discerning, the stories. Quite pessimistic as far as the good kind of love is concerned, and doesn't offer much hope...regardless, it was still entertaining, and while I can't relate to all of it, it's still pretty realistic. Which is sad... A quick read that reaffirms my pessimism
This was written as a series of vignettes, with some of the same characters crossing in and out. However, I found it difficult to keep track of the characters and their relationships with each other - it was very disjointed. There were a few very salient and insightful points made about love and relationships, but largely I wouldn't recommend it.
I'm not usually big on short stories, and didn't realize this was a book of linked stories rather than a novel when I picked it up. Although I really liked some of the stories, particularly the first and the last ones, I didn't think the book held together well. It was confusing to keep track of the characters who kept disappearing and reappearing.
Links between the various stories often took too long to emerge, frustrating reading and not being sure which character is the focus of that chapter. Other than that it was good, if not a little depressing. It felt like no one had a positive experience of 'love' or relationships.
I read it about 2 years ago so I cant remember details but I really liked it. As a Jersey native i felt there were some special bells ringing, some deeply familiar moments of darkness humor and sexyness. dont remember Jersey was an actual setting or if it just felt that way.
It was sometimes difficult to tell from whose point of view the writing was coming and different characters were thrown in hither and yon. It was interesting to see the different types of dates and relationships that arose.
There were a few paragraphs in this book that I loved, but overall, I thought it was just so-so. It felt like there was something missing, but I can't put my finger on it. Felt unfinished.
This is fantastic. I love that as you go the stories are loosely intertwined. A sister mentioned becomes the main character of the next topic - but rarely though names but through incredibly vivid, detailed, descriptions of personality. Unique, true, modern, and just plain excellent. Highly recommended collection of short stories.
Nice collection of short stories. Not as good as The Middlestein's, but a strong first book for this author.
A short but excellent set of interconnected stories -- most feature one or both of a pair of very different sisters. Now I'm even more excited to read The Middlesteins!
Great short stories with recurring characters. I'm looking forward to reading her novels.
Nov 30, 2007
Jennifer
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
anyone who is tired of tidy endings
Shelves:
staben-memorial-library
This book is a collection of short stories, linked by three women characters--Holly, Maggie, and Sarah Lee. Each story is either about one of them or about somebody connected to them. It's the opposite of chick lit--the stories of love or looking for love are jagged and uncomfortable and so painfully realistic that it was hard to stop reading. They are stories of connection and failed connection and though they can be dark, the end result is not completely unhopeful. Just don't read it after a r...more
I loooooooved this book of short fiction, luffed it, luv. It has a great way of weaving a large cast of characters in and out of initially unrelated stories. Each piece has its own momentum and emotion. As you get farther along it becomes (became for me at least) an anticapatory pleasure to remember the previous characters, their relationships and their lives. This then caused me to continuously recall the early stories. Brilliant idea and execution. Also a few special moments of agonizing truth...more
I will read everything that Jami publishes.
I thought this book was okay although I hated the writing style - the abrupt shifts to different people, only tangentially related and the constant changing from present to future to past. I really thought it was a poor attempt at stringing together unrelated stories and trying to make a larger story out of it, when they were only tenuously related, at best. I don't know if I just wasn't in the right mood for this book, or if the writing style kept me from liking it, or if I wouldn't have liked...more
Short stories
Aug 22, 2008
Laurie
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
cynical romantics
I can't say that I really liked this book because some of the stories were just plain depressing and that wasn't really what I wanted to read. This book of short stories features characters as they go on quests for love and romance only to never really find what it is they want, or never really understand what it is they want. I think if I had read this in college, I would have liked it more, but at this stage in my life... not so much.
Kind of confusing at times, some good excerpts and very real portrayals of what we do for those we love!
Apr 27, 2007
lara
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
hard-hearted girls and boys
i loved this for it's anti-chick-lit tendencies. . .it's not about getting the boy, but the ambiguous yet sometimes delicious feelings of what it means to get it on with the boy. . .it's one of the few books that gets into the non-romantic underbelly of romance. my fantastic friend sarah got me this book and i read the first chapter over lunch. . . and read it swiftly over the course of 2 nights. . . .
Based on the cover (mine actually has a gorgeous melty popsicle) and the jacket, I expected this to be chick lit.
And it was, of a sort, but better.
It's a collection of interwoven short stories about girls and women moving through relationships. It's more well written than I'd have guessed and imminently more interesting.
I was hoping for just a light, quick read. I got much more.
And it was, of a sort, but better.
It's a collection of interwoven short stories about girls and women moving through relationships. It's more well written than I'd have guessed and imminently more interesting.
I was hoping for just a light, quick read. I got much more.
You know the movies that have a lot of characters and many scenes to explain a part of their lives, and they're all secrectly connected to each other. Well, this is the book version.
I can't figure out if it was a bad book or it just wasn't my type. Romance novels; not my thing. However, the stories are not so romantic as they are more ''instant love'' (or maybe not even love).
I can't figure out if it was a bad book or it just wasn't my type. Romance novels; not my thing. However, the stories are not so romantic as they are more ''instant love'' (or maybe not even love).
I seen that a lot of people gave this book four or five stars, but I just did not think that it was that good. It was sometimes confusing to follow and I felt that it ended abruptly. It was not your typical happy ending book where all the story lines wrap up neatly. In fact, it did really even feel like it had an ending at all.
I think I'm too old to read a collection of short stories where the characters reappear in later stories. I felt like I needed cliff notes with character descriptions. Or a flow chart. The characters and stories stick with you ... or maybe that was just because I had to keep going back to re-read and figure out who was who.
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I'm the author of Instant Love, The Kept Man, and The Melting Season, and a fourth book, The Middlesteins, will be out sometime in 2012. I blog at whatever-whenever.net, and you can find me on twitter too! (@jamiattenberg, of course.)
My essays and criticism have appeared in a number of places, including The New York Times, New York, Print, Salon, and Nylon, as well as the anthologies Alone in the...more
More about Jami Attenberg...
My essays and criticism have appeared in a number of places, including The New York Times, New York, Print, Salon, and Nylon, as well as the anthologies Alone in the...more
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“These are the things we do sometimes, she thinks. We remind ourselves of why we're in love, so that we can stay that way. It's not a permanent state, remember that, she tells herself.”
—
2 people liked it
“And she was funny and beautiful and she liked the same books, the same music, and she wanted everything I did, was in the exact same place I was in life, and just like that, add water and mix, instant love.”
—
1 person liked it
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May 04, 2012 08:28pm
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