Book Review: I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50 by Annabelle Gurwitch

I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities, and Survival Stories from the Edge of 50 by Annabelle Gurwitch
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Goodreads needs to add a new shelf for books like this one - "Stopped Reading". I really thought I would like this it. I'm the target audience, just shy of 50, dealing with all that entails. The cover was really cute, the title made me laugh out loud, and really, if we can't laugh over these indignities that come with aging, we're just going to be sad.

I read the first 4 or 5 chapters and just sort of gave up. It's amusing, but not laugh-out-loud funny, and that's ok, if there is any substance behind the amusement. But this book doesn't have it. As others have said, it's possible that I just am too far removed from Annabelle's lifestyle to relate too much to her.

She tries to work in "jokes" about Conservatives, and sometimes they work, but most of the time they don't, and sometimes they're just painful. We get it, you're a good Hollywood Liberal. It becomes stale and boring pretty quickly.

I feel like Gurwitch read the witty, funny, personal and moving, "I Feel Bad About My Neck" by Nora Ephron and tried to write the next older women generation version of it. Sadly, she failed.

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