Steve Martin

Roman

Shopgirl

A NOVELLA

SHOPGIRL

Lara Engle

An enjoyable, benign book, Shopgirl irritates in its cloying romantic convenience. Mirabelle and Ray are inappropriately matched. Jeremy and Mirabelle are inappropriately matched. Mirabelle alone is fairly annoying. Why do we care about any of these people? Yet, until some silly, too-convenient twists at the end left a sour taste, I found the story to be a sweet diversion. Too bad the plot ended up as cardboard as the characters.

It wasnt very funny, and I really didn't expect this from Steve Martin.

Lydia B

Marisel 

I read this, my first book by Steve Martin, because I erroneously expected it to be funny. Funny it was not. Sensitive it was, and insightful of that very trying & difficult decade of life so punctuated by uncertainty and doubt, that is one’s 20s. I found it almost painful to read, at times. The hopefulness it inspires, however, was my reward. It is a tiny gem of a book and I’m encouraged to read more of his writings.

Tracie McMurray

Kind of icky. I was left wondering if the main male character was based on Steve Martin and a creepy relationship he once had in his fifties with a 28 year old girl.

Trever

I first found out about this on a BuzzFeed list of short novels and shelved it on here because it was written by a stand-up comic, a famous one at that, which seemed like it could go either very right or very wrong.

It turns out: Steve Martin knows how to write! He certainly has a voice: present tense, no contractions, and lots of "telling." Normally this is a bad thing, and many reviewers on here seem to believe so, but the telling allows for little bits of the characters' thoughts to come out onto the pages.

As for the story, it's pretty standard fare: a girl meets a guy and an odd relationship ensues. The ending feels a bit like a deus ex machina, but it actually ends with something not particularly happy or sad, but a good spot to end the book.

So overall: Martin, a comedian, crafted a book that is well-written and not humorous, but kept a witty voice.

Barry Hess

It's funny. Not the book, no. The fact that I read "The Pleasure of My Company" before "Shopgirl" and disagree with most of the rest of the Goodreaders. I preferred this book. Again Martin is very good at writing in a visual style, painting the picture of his characters. This is a novella and not filled with deep insight. There is experience and change and a story. Simple.

Dorian Avers

Maybe someday I'll reread this book and be able to appreciate it, or at least enjoy it a bit more. I read this book in a night, not really getting into it. The surface level details for the characters made them seem very one dimensional and unrealistic. Even though we were given a decent back story for both Mirabelle and Ray, it just wasn't enough to make the characters mean anything to me. They were bland and vapid, and I was indifferent to how things ended for any of them. Maybe the point was for them to be unremarkable though. Maybe that's where the intrigue comes from in a contradictory, yet relate able way to some readers...Or maybe they were just poorly written. I did enjoy the different character perspectives though. They had a very easy transition between them and well-thought out insight; this statement may seem a bit contradictory to the one before, but that's how I felt. 
I didn't realize that the Steve Martin from Cheaper by the Dozen was the author of this book. I wonder if that's where the popularity and rave reviews come from? My mother bought this book for me and said that the librarians that she worked with were always recommending it and it was always checked out. I feel similarly to when I read The Graveyard Book and apparently missed the great allure and understanding of both these pieces. Like I said though, maybe one day I'll come back to this book and really enjoy it. I think this could be one of those books, maybe I'll pick up on more the second time through.
I wanted to like this book because of it's easy-going story line, but I was left wanting more. The beautiful simplicity just wasn't there. Maybe it's because I just read Love Story by Erich Segal that I'm judging this book more harshly, but I am just left feeling a bit like it wasn't a good use of my time. Which seems harsh, but I feel almost unsatisfied. I did like the ending quote, "it's pain that changes our lives" (130) and it's tie in to an overheard conversation with the same message (53-54). I thought this was a brilliant use of recall and it tied a neat bow around the book.

(Edit: I just read some of the reviews...I don't think time will make this book any more enjoyable Things that I saw in the comments: this book wanted to be deep, but simply wasn't and saying that someone has a futon instead of a couch is apparently a lazy and cliched way to say that they haven't grown up yet. I've never thought of that before, but it is a spot on observation)

Ben Nathan

an enjoyable, quick read with characters that you have met many times. the man who controls but doesn't understand how that affects others and the girl that is the other side of the transaction but doesn't understand her own place in the world. it can be a depressing book if you see yourself as the main characters, but a meaningful one if you see yourself in then just a bit.

Shopgirl Roman

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