"Charming and funny."
--The New York Times "As hilarious as
Girls' Guide is, there's a wise, serious core here."
--The Wall Street Journal "A sexy, pour-your-heart-out, champagne tingle of a read--thoughtful, wise, and tell-all honest. Bank's is a voice that you'll remember for years to come."
--Cosmopolitan "Believe the hype: Jane's touching (but unsentimental) career and love trials ring true."
--Glamour "Bank writes like John Cheever, but funnier."
--Los Angeles Times "Melissa Bank accomplishes that hardest of simple things: She shows life as it is--and makes it readable."
--The Washington Post Book World "Writing literature that mixes comedy and tragedy in the proper amounts is not an easy task. Only a handful of contemporary writers (Joseph Heller, Ann Tyler, and John Irving come to mind) can do it with any success. Whether dealing with serious issues or mundane, Bank proves that she has what it takes to stand in such august company."
--The Denver Post "Crafted by a gifted writer, a descendant from the school of restraint whose grandfather is Hemingway and whose father is the early Raymond Carver. The presiding mother figure is Lily Tomlin."
--The News and Observer "Only a few authors have successfully blended the compressed nature of short prose with the novel's greater panorama of character. Melissa Bank brings similar energy and style to her new book."
--Chicago Tribune "I read the first chapter and thought, 'Wait, I know this girl.' By the second, I realized she was my friend. She did all the things that good friends do: she made me laugh, she made me weep, and when I closed the book at the end of the day, I knew I'd never forget her."
--Ruth Ozeki, New York Times bestselling author of A Tale for the Time Being and My Year of Meats "Courageous and wise, as heartbreaking and laugh-out-loud funny as only the most deeply true fiction can be. Melissa Bank writes with a fine eye, a clean voice, and a generous heart."
--Pam Houston, bestselling author of Sight Hound and Cowboys are My Weakness "A compassionate comedy of manners, pitch-perfect . . . Bank's people are fully realized and, just like us, fond, foolish, blind, and wise by turns and in ways both tenderly familiar and refreshingly odd."
--Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of Away and Lucky Us
After following the advice from a manual called "How to Meet and Marry Mr Right", Jane learns that in love there is neither pattern nor promise. This is a funny collection of connected stories and a portrait of Jane, a woman manoeuvring her way through love, sex and relationships.