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Four relationship tales perfect for summer reads

May 30, 2005

It's never too early to begin stocking up on your summer reads. And what's more fun than reading about other peoples' dysfunctional relationships -- be it fiction or truth? Here's a few books worth taking a look at:

We Thought You Would Be Prettier: True Tales of the Dorkiest Girl Alive by Laurie Notaro (Villard Books, $9.95).
Notaro, who wrote The Idiot Girls Action-Adventure Club, is back with a new set of sarcastic and darkly funny memoirs on flipping the bird to an obnoxious kid making an obscene gesture while she's riding a stationary bike at the gym and slinking out of the gym never to return again; her childhood trauma of believing she was being taken to the orphanage for being bad when in fact she was getting her tonsils removed; and trying to buy fashionable black boots that actually will zip up over her chunky calves.
Excerpt: "'Oh, look at those fat little sausage ankles,' my Nana said to me last week. 'Those look like clown feet! I've only seen ankles like that one time before and that was on your Aunt Judy. Two days later she was lying in a casket and wearing green eye shadow that made her swollen head look like a Granny Smith apple ... My sisters recoiled in disgust. 'Whoa,' my sister said. 'Did your husband leave you yet?'"

The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe (Penguin Books, $15)
Pin curls! Typing pools! Jaffe's story of five young women in New York City in the 1950s, their first jobs and first time in the Big Apple, is a tale of friendship, young crushes and calling the boss "Mister." Written long before "Sex and the City," its stories are still relevant now: In a world that can be pretty cold and mean, the power of really good girl friends is not to be underestimated.
Excerpt from the company Christmas party: "'I like your looks,' [Mr. Shalimar] said thickly. 'You're plain but you're pretty... I'll bet you have nice legs. I love girls' legs. They're the most important part of a girl's body. Do you have pretty legs?"
Barbara looked at him without answering.
"Then ... I'll see for myself," he said. Clumsily he lowered himself to the floor on all fours and crept under the table... There was a grunting sound from the depths under the table and some muffled words. Then slowly, his dark face darker from the exertion, Mr. Shalimar crawled backward out from under the table and raised himself to his feet.
"You have beau-ti-ful legs," he said.

This Side of Married by Rachel Pastan (Penguin Books, $14).
What a joy it is to be the unmarried oldest sister of three. Or to be the only one married, but miserably so and unable to conceive a baby. Maybe it's the toughest to be the youngest, spoiled and always having to follow the older ones' footsteps. Meet Alice, the oldest who finally gets engaged but with disastrous results; Isabel, who has grown apart from her husband and has left her career to pretty much do nothing but think about her misery; and Tina, the bratty one who will take anything she wants -- and does. The fictional tale probes just what the heck is happiness, anyway? What their domineering ob-gyn mother, "Doc," wants? What their sisters think? Or is it something else?
Excerpt: "Isabel passed the fish platter to Tina, but her sister held up her hand. 'I can't tolerate anything that tastes strong at all,' she said. 'And I'm in the second trimester! I know you used to want to be pregnant, Isabel, but really, you're not missing out on anything.'"

The Starter Wife by Gigi Levangie Grazer (Simon & Schuster, $24)

Let's play pretend. You're married to a Hollywood producer. You eventually give in to the demands of being such a wife, giving up your children's book writing gig and spend time going to strategic lunches and dinners with the right people, getting Botoxed and massaged and trained to look blond, thin and rich -- you know, Hollywood.

Grazer gives a fictional but convincing peek inside, and she ought to know: She's married to well-known producer Brian Grazer.

Just before her pre-nup expires at 10 years, 41-year-old Gracie Pollock's husband, Kenny, leaves her for a much younger woman -- and tells her not to bother trying to get a lawyer, he's already sewn up the big ones in town. Pollock resigns herself to her new life, wondering how fast she can get married again -- which makes her kind of annoying -- and moves into a friend's summer house in Malibu. Then, only in a Hollywood tale, she falls in love with a homeless man who turns out to be from a very rich family. I found myself wishing Gracie'd show a little more backbone, and yet, heck, everyone loves a happy ending and in The Starter Wife, the reader gets one. It's summer reading, after all!

Tammy Chase