You've Been Reviewed: My Boyfriend Wrote A Book About Me

My Boyfriend Wrote a Book About Me: And Other Stories I Shouldn't Share with Acquaintances, Co-workers, Taxi Drivers, Assistants, Job Interviewers, Bikini ... and Ex/ Current/ Future Boyfriends But Have by Hilary Winston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book. It was given to me as a birthday gift last month from a friend who has very similar taste to me - with the disclaimer, "I haven't read it, but I've heard good things."


Hilary Winston is a comedy writer, and the shows she has worked on are funny. But this book, like so many memoirs and essay collections by other writers and artists, was about darker periods in her life. When she went deeper with her writing - about 2/3 of the way into the book - about her mother's battle with breast cancer and her cat's illnesses, I found myself much more interested in who Ms. Winston was and how she handled getting through what life was giving to her. She made me feel like she was personally telling me her story, and I really like who that Ms. Winston was...and her rebirthing therapy she went through was also pretty compelling, darkly-humorous stuff as well.


But...and I hate writing this...but the first 2/3 of the book, where she examined her dating life and in particular her relationship with "Kyle"...she was losing me. Perhaps she couldn't get close enough to the material, her own experience, because it hurt too much - but I wanted to see the humor as a tool to get her through it. Where was her cunningness, her cutting edge, her very personal point of view? Unfortunately, her voice didn't read as distinguished enough from any other girls I know who have been through similar break-ups and or public humiliations. I really wanted to know how HILARY- AND ONLY HILARY- experienced it. Instead, it felt watered down, generic, and like any book-packager-chick-lit writer out there could have written it. I don't want to read those books, I want to read the books that have a Ms. Winston signature and voice. If she writes another collection - and I hope she does - I will give it a try.


One weird thing I found from reading this book: Ms. Winston takes a lot of baths, with and without other people. I found this particularly hilarious and odd, and particularly Ms. Winston. More please.



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