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The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing: Melissa Bank: 122 (Penguin Essentials, 122)

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Generous-hearted and wickedly insightful, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing is the New York Times bestselling novel by Melissa Bank and part of the Penguin Essentials, a series which spotlights the very best of our modern classics

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, relationships, and the treacherous waters of the workplace. Soon Jane is swept off her feet by an older man and into a Fitzgeraldesque whirl of cocktail parties, country houses, and rules that were made to be broken, but comes to realise that it's a world where the stakes are much too high for comfort. With an unforgettable comic touch, Bank skilfully teases out universal issues, puts a clever new spin on the mating dance, and captures in perfect pitch what it's like to come of age as a young woman.

'This chronicle of a New Yorker's relationships has a wit and perceptiveness that singles it out from the crowd' Guardian

'As hilarious as Girls' Guide is, there's a wise, serious core here' 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' Cosmopolitan

Review

Beautifully written and very funny. . . as with Salinger and Carver, there is crystalline simplicity to Bank's prose ― Guardian

I read the first chapter and thought, 'Wait, I know this girl' . . . I realized she was my friend . . . 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

Charming and funny ― New York Times

A smart, ruefully funny chronicle of a modern young woman's search for love . . . a model of well-crafted narrative building to a thoughtful, hopeful conclusion. Bank has created a delightful heroine who deserves her happy ending-even though any reader who has really been paying attention to the sharp, unsentimental details knows that all happy endings are provisional ― Kirkus

One marvels at Bank's assured control of her material, her witty, distinctive voice and her ability to find comedy, pathos and drama in ordinary lives . . . phenomenally good ― Publishers Weekly

This chronicle of a New Yorker's relationships has a wit and perceptiveness that singles it out from the crowd ― Guardian

As hilarious as Girls' Guide is, there's a wise, serious core here ― 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 ― Cosmopolitan

Bank writes like John Cheever, but funnier ― Los Angeles Times

From the Back Cover

Generous-hearted and wickedly insightful, The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing is the New York Times bestselling novel by Melissa Bank and part of the Penguin Essentials, a series which spotlights the very best of our modern classics.

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, relationships, and the treacherous waters of the workplace. Soon Jane is swept off her feet by an older man and into a Fitzgeraldesque whirl of cocktail parties, country houses, and rules that were made to be broken, but comes to realise that it's a world where the stakes are much too high for comfort. With an unforgettable comic touch, Bank skilfully teases out universal issues, puts a clever new spin on the mating dance, and captures in perfect pitch what it's like to come of age as a young woman.

Review:

4.4 out of 5

87.69% of customers are satisfied

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant

G. · 21 May 2019

This is one of those books that surprises you. The title gives nothing away which is part of it's charm really. It's funny, gripping and beautiful.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book - don't let the title put you off. It doesn't reply to outdoor pursuits.

m. · 14 December 2019

I remember hearing this book discussed and the reviewer saying not to let the title put you off, so I didn't and read it. I enjoyed it but there was something about the writing that I found quite difficult. Every evening when I picked it up the book I had to read the previous chapter to remind myself what was going on. I'm really not sure why that was, what it was about the writing because I once I got into the reading again then it read quite easily. The central character is Jane and you read her life story through her relationships. All of them are stand alone stories with their own characters. The final story, when she was in a relationship with Richard and playing 'hard to get' following a book, 'How to meet and marry Mr Right' I found extremely frustrating and rather patronising as a woman myself. Women don't behave like that any more. Even writing a book to suggest that they should really frustrated me. Jane was a lovely young woman, she was attractive because of who she was and didn't need to play hard to get. Yes, it backfired on her and Richard didn't like the woman she portrayed; he liked who she was. The chapter just really annoyed me, it's like woman playing dim because they don't want to intimidate potential suitors - completely unnecessary and unpleasant chapter.

5.0 out of 5 stars A boys’ guide too

A.C. · 11 August 2018

Great book which looks misleadingly like chick lit from the title and the cover, but which is not at all - in fact, it’s a super-smart, witty, believable and eminently readable collection of short story-cum-chapters looking at human relationships. Fab.

3.0 out of 5 stars Very enjoyable

J. · 1 June 2018

Very wnloyable

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb

C. · 8 April 2018

Absolutely whizzed through this fabulous book, love love love it. Entertaining, funny with truly believable characters. Witty, perceptive & a weekend joy to read.

4.0 out of 5 stars Got Me - Hook, Line & Sinker!

H. · 16 May 2003

This is a wonderful book. I devoured it and ever since I've been recommending it to all my friends. It's full of larger-than-life characters and witty one-liners. It just read like 'the truth' to me and I did wonder how much of it was autobiographical. Melissa Bank's writing is very economical and deceptively simple but it draws you in and you just want to keep reading!I agree with another reviewer that I wasn't too sure about the chapter on the neighbours. It's even written in the first person - but not by Jane, our heroine - which was confusing. I kept thinking some of those characters would turn up later in the book, but they never did. That was a bit odd and in some ways spoiled what was, for me, an almost perfect read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and poignant and an honest internal voice

T. · 29 March 2018

Loved it so much. Each story interested and intrigued me. I heard the voices deadpan or in conversational tones. I heard the emotion and yearning and independence in every word.

5.0 out of 5 stars Literary fiction at its best

D.K.L. · 17 August 2013

This is one of my favourite books of all times - I have owned it for a couple of years and every time I pick it up again, I discover another paragraph that rings so true and that is so carefully and skilfully crafted, it makes me want to read it all over again.Unfortunately this book seems to have been marketed to the wrong market. This is by no means lighthearted chicklit. The blurbs on the back cover are misleading.

Perfect for my daughters

J. · 6 January 2024

Bought this book for my 20 something year old daughters. They both recently graduated college and I heard about this book from friends in advertising because the author was a copywriter in the ad biz early in her career. My daughters loved it. “ Witty, clever and honest” were words that they used. I will read it next. Sad that the author died last year from cancer. She would be happy to know that she touched both my daughter’s hearts.

Wise and funny

S. · 12 October 2019

This is not a novel exactly, but a series of stories narrated (bar one) by Jane. Mercifully they’re in chronological order so when we first meet her, she’s a sprightly 14 yo, and her older brother brings a girlfriend to meet the family. Then she’s older and goes with her boyfriend to a Caribbean island to holiday with his ex and the ex’s new man. You can imagine how that went. Jane indulges in some straight talking. Later, as an editor, she has an on again off again relationship with a much older man: an alcoholic with diabetes. He’s a great guy in many respects but ... He goes into ketoacidosis just as her doctor father is dying of leukaemia. Hard times. Her next boyfriend seems perfect till she notices how angry he is. Nevertheless he helps her through her own bad health situation but eventually she realises that he doesn’t really hear her. I’m sure many of us can relate to that. In the final, very funny story, she meets a great guy at her friend’s wedding. Disillusioned by her previous hunting and fishing expeditions in the relationship lake, she furtively buys one of those advice books that tell women to play hard to get and suppress their real selves. She internalises the voices of the authors, who dispense advice at every turn (“Insist on advance notice for dates!” etc), thus almost ruining her chance to finally have the satisfying partnership we all dream of. Luckily, she claws it back just in time, allowing herself to be real, and funny, quirky and open.Jane is a very likeable narrator. Her voice is honest and matter of fact. Big emotions are there, but there’s no drama queening. The warmth of her family is palpable, as are its sorrows, all the more powerful for the laconic way in which they’re presented. A very enjoyable read.

TERRIBLE book quality

D.D. · 13 August 2015

The quality of book is terrible, like books sold on pathways/roadside. The pages are of terrible quality, font and colour (very hazy words) and this is definitely not an original copy but a pirated one. Kindly look into the sellers stock because paying INR 799 for this book was DEFINITELY not worth it.

Loved it!

C. · 15 May 2015

One of those books that makes it impossible to put it down, easy to read and gives you lots to think about, swelling back in my own memories of fishing and hunting.

Great book of interconnecting short stories

o. · 3 August 2011

I put off buying this book because I associated it with "chick lit" (maybe it is chick lit, but as it should be). I changed my mind when I came across Bank's excellent story "The Wonder Spot" in an anthology. The same elements in that story can be found in this anthology: humor, intelligence, wit, great writing, messed-up relationships, and struggles with one's place in the world. Great!!

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The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing: Melissa Bank: 122 (Penguin Essentials, 122)

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Product origin: United Kingdom

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