Jenny and the Jaws of Life
February 3, 2007 by karen
I wrapped up Jenny and the Jaws of Life: Short Stories by Jincy Willett this past week—just in the nick of time to start my next book without being behind schedule in 24 in 12. I had this book on my Amazon wishlist for quite some time now. It would always pop up as a suggested book when I would buy books by David Sedaris and since I love short stories, I figured it was probably a good pick for me.
While I appreciate that it was a well written book, it was not one of my favorites. In fact, it was downright depressing with the main characters being murdered, raped, diagnosed with cancer and cheated on by lousy spouses. I guess I should have figured that it wasn’t all unicorns and rainbows based on the title, but when David Sedaris declares it is one of his favorite books and writes the foreword, I kind of assume it is going to be good—at least funny.
And it was. Sometimes. For every tragic event, there was some quirky twist that made the story turnaround somewhat and not be fully heartbreaking. There are a few good stories in the book; I loved “Best of Betty,” a chapter of letters to a newspaper advice columnist and her honest responses.
In the end, like my last review, I give this book a B. I am starting to feel like a teacher handing out too many Bs because I feel guilty dropping a decent book into the C range. However, I think Jenny and the Jaws of Life had enough redeeming qualities for a B. Maybe I should change my rating scale. Would stars work better? Any other ideas?
Tags: 2007goals, 24 in 12, books, karen
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