Synopsis
Introduces the concept that independent happiness is the key to sustainable happiness for both married people and singles.
Reviews
Given the popularity of Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary (LJ 5/15/98) and its American TV cousin Ally McBeal, it was inevitable that a spate of books dealing with singleness would crop up. Although Roth and Rutkowski have produced two very different books, their purposes are identical: to assure the Bridgets and Allys of the world that just because they're single doesn't mean they're doomed to loneliness and heartbreak. Roth attempts to prove this point by following three successful and busy single women in their late 20s or early 30s for one year. Each woman has a glamorous job?ad exec, movie producer, and media relations expert for a record company. Each woman also has hankerings for men that readers know intuitively are wrong for them?a mentor/ father figure, a strong and silent cowboy, a 23-year-old boy toy. Despite all the conversations Roth conveys and the lengthy descriptions she gives of each woman, this is pretty much all you learn about them. Some libraries may want to consider this book (especially where Bridget's a hit), but it's a marginal purchase. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/98.] Rutkowski, whose credentials include 11 years of writing on "the human experience" and several years of "being happy, very happy" despite being alone, goes at things differently from Roth. He maintains, as countless others have maintained before him, that the only way to be happy is not to count on others to make you happy. He provides 66 chapters of hints on how to foster happiness in yourself. The hints range from the lame (read dictionaries to make yourself knowledgeable and therefore happy) to the obvious (emulate a child's sense of wonder). All in all, not recommended.?Pamela A. Matthews, Gettysburg Coll. Lib., PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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