Total Page : 192
Publisher : Atlas
Publication Date : 2010 01 29
>> An emotional page turner
I read this in about two days during one of the busiest weeks of my semester This book moves quickly Barber wastes little time in describing each event and uses relatively spare language yet the prose is beautiful and had me in tears at one point Very little of it was used in the movie of the same name but so much the better what comes after the Simon story was much more interesting to me Maybe I felt as though I could relate to Barber so I just liked her but at every turn she comes across as self aware funny and wise I loved this book and 5 days after I finished it it s still in my head My only regret is that I wish it had been longer
>> How could a writer with such an interesting life story write such a dull retelling of it
I was given this book and would probably never have sought it out myself to read i have never heard of Lynn Barber and throughout the book i was left amazed that this woman had read English Literature at Oxford and had had a very successful career as a journalist Her writing was lackluster and whilst she clearly had an interesting life story to tell it was written with so little emotion so little personal insight and was so painfully brief I couldn t really fathom out why she had bothered writing it in the first place although she does comment in the introduction that if you are going to write it may as well be for money As for the book being funny the only time a wry smile past my lips was when she condemned a degree in Philosophy and Psychology from Oxford as useless but then went on to ridicule anyone who couldn t see the sense in a Media Studies degree Hmmm The film of the same title written by Nick Hornby is only based on this book s first chapter and really it seems as if it sparked an idea for him rather than being a compelling story in it s own right Lynn Barber herself admits that he made up many more elements to jazz it up and then had to fabricate an ending because the real story just petered out I haven t seen the film but it sounds more interesting than this dull little book
>> very light
It should be noted that the movie is based on only about 25 pages of this book and they re much less detailed and in depth than what is presented in the film So if you re interested in reading this book because you want to hear more details about weekends in Paris and the relationship presented in the movie etc this isn t worth buying though there were small details I found interesting like the author buying Je Reviens perfume instead of Chanel No 5 like what s presented in the movie It s also interesting that Lynn s character Jennie was made more innocent and naive in the movie In the book she never has many feelings for Simon David and is soon suspicious and bored of his character and even tries to leave him after she gets too bored with him and has to study for her entrance exams this is the reason why Simon proposes to her which makes a lot more sense than what s presented in the movie Though this book is interesting it s a very light read It reads more like outline than a novel I feel given the lax description of anything I can definitely tell that a journalist wrote this book I am impressed with the way Nick Hornby expanded so much and truly made a work of fiction just based on something light like this It s interesting that instead of a book being turned into a movie and the movie being just a shortened version of the book the movie was actually more detailed Worth comparing the two if you re interested in book to film translations
