This book is yet another one of my forays into the infamous ‘Chick Lit’ genre. I read ‘The Nanny Diaries’ by these same authors a few weeks ago. Since I found that book reasonably amusing, I thought I’d give this one a go.

I was three chapters into it before I finally grasped the fact that the main character’s actual ‘name’ in this novel is ‘Girl.’ (before this realization, I was horribly confused when her supposedly feminist boss kept screaming “GIRRRRRRRRLLLL!”). Although the authors are obviously trying to be clever and unique, this just fell flat.

The weird names continued in subsequent chapters with the introduction of Girl’s new boss, ‘Guy’ and Girl’s new boyfriend, ‘Buster.’ Confusingly, other characters had normal names, like ‘Doris’ or ‘Stacey’ so it was a bit disorienting. Half-way through, I felt so uncomfortable with this poor character’s lack of a name that I simply gave her one: Sarah. I mentally referred to ‘Girl’ as ‘Sarah’ throughout the rest of the book.

Sarah (aka: “Girl”) is a 24-year-old recent graduate trying to build a career in New York City. After a stint with a feminist non-profit, she lands her first job in the private sector, working for a dot com start-up.

The plot revolves around Sarah’s struggle to retain her own values in the face of the ‘company vision’ and inevitable office. Rising quickly to the rank of ‘Vice President,’ Sarah finds herself in myriad uncomfortable situations, including promoting a marketing strategy at a bikini-clad gay pool party in L.A. and entertaining a sexually aggressive female client at an exclusive New York City club.

Like ‘Nanny Diaries,’ parts of this book were hilariously funny and spot-on. I found myself nodding and laughing out loud. Other parts of the book dragged on, though, and I found it less clever and a bit more tedious than the authors’ previous effort. In the last chapters of the book, the plot moves from quirky to ridiculous.

This isn’t great literature, but it’s a light, fast read, amusing, but not memorable.

Total nonsense. I got more than halfway through before I decided to save my sanity and JUST SAY NO by giving up on it. Honestly, the general suckiness was even further intensified by the characters’ too-fucking-twee names. Girl? Guy? Buster? Argh.