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The comments I read about this book prior to opening the cover made me very curious about the book’s content. The Independent wrote that the book is “Ourtrageous, outspoken and always hones…makes Sex and the City look passé.” The New York Times wrote that “Nothing, it seems, is too private not to share with…Ms. Klein’s legions of followers. And that is exactly how they like it...”
From those two comments alone, I knew that I had gotten something far from what I had expected when I choose to review this book. I just thought I was getting a book on how to make a great martini….
Straight Up and Dirty is about the life of a young, newly divorced New Yorker who’s struggling to make sense of her failed marriage, her sex partners, and the advice of her friends and her shrink. Stephanie takes her readers through the ups and downs of her life by giving very intimate details of her dates and how these dates relate to her failed marriage.
When I first began reading the book, I was worried that the whole book was going to be detailed date description, followed by sappy memories of her ex, followed by the next date. This is how the book starts, but as the reader gets involved in Stephanie’s life and how she got to where she is, it becomes clearer why she is, in fact, so screwed up. She discovers that the failed marriage began way before the marriage even took place. Stephanie settled for something far less than what she was worth because she herself couldn’t see her worth. In the end, Stephanie does the unthinkable for a newly divorcee and takes time to figure out who she is, how she got there, and what she wants from life. In her conclusions lay the answers to her happiness.
The story spends so much time talking about the present, then sending us back to Ms. Klein’s past. I found that I often was too distracted by the skipping around to keep up with the present. Interestingly, the book does give an insight into the life of a typical single New Yorker (if there is such a thing), and it leads the reader to understand why divorce messes up your whole life. I was glad to see some real meat to the story as the book came to end. Straight Up and Dirty is an interesting book, but it just wasn’t right for me.
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