Dating Tips for the Unemployed
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1.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
One of the Believer’s Best Books of the Year: One woman’s journey through that awkward period between being born and dying.
A modern odyssey about trying to find one’s home in the world, this collection of wickedly funny and offbeat vignettes touches upon quantum physics; the Donner Party; arctic exploration; Greek mythology; Rocky I, II, V, IV, VI, and III respectively; and literary immortality. Dating Tips for the Unemployed “melds novel, autobiography, and all manner of asides as [the author] flails at art, love, and friendship with the wry intelligence of someone just wise enough to realize they have no idea what they’re doing. A flat-out joy to read” (O, The Oprah Magazine).
“In engaging episodes, Iris-the-character neurotically navigates dating in New York City, smokes pot on Greek islands with hapless lovers, drinks too much, deals with disapproving family, and eats a lot of cannoli. Smyles’s surreal, lyrical voice elevates these everyday scenarios into the realm of the fantastic and absurd. Included in the book are hilariously stylized advertisements full of false promises, such as ‘Health Secrets of the Roman Empire’ and ‘Have Your Portrait Painted By An Elephant!’ all for a price. Smyles is sharp, melancholy, and wickedly funny. She is unafraid to reveal and revel in her character’s flaws because it is what makes them so achingly, relatably human.” —Interview
“Something like a cocktail of Dorothy Parker, James Joyce, and Philip Roth iced, sweetened, and blended.” —The Nervous Breakdown
“Whimsy, satire, and rollicking social commentary . . . Ms. Smyles is a misanthrope-of-the-people, a standout on the order of Fran Lebowitz.” —The East Hampton Star
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Smyles's collection of stories and essays her first book since her 2013 novel, Iris Has Free Time chronicles the author's young adulthood in New York City after growing up in a right-leaning Greek family from Long Island. After a very strong, nonstop funny first story about a trip to Greece in which everyone wants to engage the tired protagonist in conversation, the rest of the book largely catalogs Iris's litany of boyfriends (an assortment of overweight, "toothless," and avuncular types) with varied results. Some stories, such as "Enter the Wu-Tang," which pokes fun at private school alumni who act like they're gangster rappers ("Having gone to public school, I had more street cred than all of them"), are successful and relatable. Other pieces, such as "Advertisements for My Posthumous Papers," though humorous, are overly long. Smyles also delves into the fun dynamic of her family: she can relate to her insomniac father, who has a basement full of late-night infomercial purchases and ran a party store when she was young. While her mother always seems to be lamenting her daughter's biological clock, Smyles herself is content to date and even be alone. She starts her own literary magazine and publishes the occasional story, to the nonchalance of her non-artistic older brothers. By the time the book winds down, our protagonist is 35 and the owner of an apartment in Brooklyn that was purchased by her parents. On paper, Smyles might seem spoiled and privileged, but her humor, self-awareness, and ability to tell a good story make her good company.
