She was my new favorite author. After having read the excellent book of stories, The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing, I was determined to read everything Melissa Bank had ever written. Luckily, the rest of the catalog consisted only of her 2nd novel, The Wonder Spot. I was a bookish college sophomore, someone that was more likely to have read about something than actually experience it, and Sophie Applebaum, the nerdy reader/writer/dreamer heroine of The Wonder Spot, was a woman after my own heart.
Like me, Sophie was thoughtful, good-intentioned but woefully ridden with self-doubts and the sticky, slow-moving inaction often produced by fear of being oneself. Quietly warring with a set of issues that I, at 19, painfully connected to. I latched on to Sophie and cheered for her through Hebrew classes with Mr. Pinkus, through her years at the only college that accepted her, to New York where she made the most dreadful mistakes as she attempted to navigate the publishing business. Unlike other readers of the book, Sophie never disappointed me with her self-destructive mistakes. In some odd way, I understood her and knew the reasons why, though I am still at a loss to articulate them. Then and now, I just wanted to be accepted for who I was/am, and I knew that Sophie only wanted the same.
A definite must-read for cool-ish nerds/Publishing wanna-bes everywhere.
Luv Always,
Whitney
2 comments:
I just have to compliment you on your writing style. I daresay you'd make an excellent columnist as you manage to interest even I, a staunch anti-chicklit-ist, in the books you write about. Not, of course, to say that your interests lie solely in chicklit, but you know what I mean, I'm sure.
Thanks Jackeh! I kind of have a love-hate relationship with Chick-lit, I mean it does have its merits. But this author, Melissa Bank, is only chick-lit in that her characters live in NYC and work in the publishing industry. The tone and subject matter are decidely non-chick-ish, lol. You should read it!
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