The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank

Quote of the Day:
"The biggest mistake you can make is to believe that you work for someone else.
- Unknown

Book Completed: 7
Completion Date: January 19, 2007
Publication Year: 1999
Pages: 274
Owned Prior to 2007


From Amazon.ca:

Hailed by critics as the debut of a major literary, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing has dazzled and delighted readers and topped bestseller lists nationwide. Generous-hearted and wickedly insightful, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing maps the progress of Jane Rosenal as she sets out on a personal and spirited expedition through the perilous terrain of sex, love, and relationships, and the treacherous waters of the workplace. With an unforgettable comic spin on the mating dance, and captures in perfect pitch what it's like to be a young woman coming of age in America today.

I had heard lots about this book before buying it one day at a second hand store. Since I bought it, I totally forgot what it was about, but I knew that it had been on the to be read pile for quite some time. I remember buying it, I just don't remember what year it was in.

I think this book was appropriate after completing Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, because both novels are a collection of interconnected short stories. In the process of this book, Jane Rosenal goes from a child to an adult, but not in a coherant story pattern. Sometimes the next short story happens before the one before it, one time the story is told by Jane's neighbour, but it is not confusing to follow.

The novel is really a coming of age book. This is not a book that I would have seen in a store and picked up, as it is not something I necessarily drawn to. It is the sort of book I read more because of reputation. I do not read very many short story collections, either, so it was a branch off in a different direction that way as well. I think the reason I did not mind this book is because Jane is relatable. She is not a character that I cannot see at least a little bit of myself in. She is struggling to figure out who she is, trying out different avenues in the hopes that it will lead her where she wants to be, and falling in and out of love.

My favourite story in this one was the last one, "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing". At the end of the book, Jane has lost hope with all the methods that she has tried before, and decides that she needs to read a survival guide on relationships to get what she wants. It is a comical story, and actually, I find most of the book funny. It is not a serious read, by any stretch of the imagination, but serious things do happen in it.

I enjoyed this book.

3.5/5

Author Gender:
Female: 6
Male: 1

This author was new to me.