Book Hooky

This morning I played hooky (Does it count as hooky if I work from home?) for an hour or so—to read. It felt like such a decadent treat as I curled up in my afghan on the couch on a chilly weekday morning. I was eager to finish Melissa Bank's book The Wonder Spot, which I've had on hand for so long that I forgot who recommended it to me and when.

I never read Bank's well-received debut, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, but this one got great reviews too. It works as a novel but is in fact more like a chronological series of short stories about Sophie Applebaum, a likable if maddeningly unfocused young woman. We first meet her at age 12, on her way to her cousin's Bat Mitzvah. It's 1972, and Bank gets nearly every detail of that era just right.

Sophie is sandwiched between two loving brothers in her typical suburban Jewish family. Each "chapter" presents another slice of her life as she makes her way through adolescence and into adulthood.

I couldn't help but like Sophie—she's smart, really funny, and warm-hearted. However, I frequently wanted to shake her for being so unreliable, so wishy-washy, and so self-sabotaging. (In that respect, she made me think of the heroine of Prep, whom I also liked despite her infuriating ways.) I've encountered plenty of clever, funny conversationalists in my day, but Sophie seems to know more than her fair share. (Then again, I didn't spend my twenties moving in publishing and advertising circles in Manhattan, so who am I to say.) Much of the witty banter and description and characterization made me smile, and I even laughed out loud a couple of times, which is a rarity. Bank writes really well, although she ought to ask for a new editor next time—this one missed some easy stuff.

If you've read this far, rest assured: This is not chick lit. It's too smart for that label. While I don't think I'll be thrusting this book at people the way I do with some books—You must read this!—still, the next time a friend is looking for something to read, I'll pass it along.

Comments

[TheNag]

I read it and it made me laugh. The perfect book hooky book.

[Kathy]

I read both these and enjoyed them a lot. Aah, nothing better than "reading hooky" on a cold day!