Why I'm Like This: True Stories (P.S.)

by Cynthia Kaplan

Paperback, 2007

Status

Available

Call number

791.092

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

William Morrow Paperbacks (2007), Edition: Revised, Paperback, 240 pages

Description

Cynthia Kaplan takes us on a hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking journey through her unique, uncensored world--her bungled romantic encounters and unsung theatrical experiences; her gadget-obsessed father, her pill-popping therapist, and her eccentric grandmothers; her fearless husband, whom she engages in an ongoing battle over which of them is the most popular person in their apartment; and, of course, her vengeful, power-hungry one-year-old son. Kaplan's voice is a lot like the one in our heads--the one that most of us are only willing to listen to late at night . . . maybe while locked in a closet. What a relief it is that someone finally admits that she is afraid of nearly everything; that she is jealous even of people whose lives are on the verge of collapse; and that she has, at times, tried to pass for a gentile.… (more)

Media reviews

The New York Times Book Review

The Kaplan of ''Why I'm Like This'' is a well-adjusted clown. Unlike her soul-baring sisters in memoir, she has no secrets to confess; she has only family jokes to tell -- and she has them down pat.

User reviews

LibraryThing member sarahnoid

Not a life-changing volume but I found this to be a pretty adequate bus-book. It was a quick read, each chapter being a separate entitity in and of itself.

Because of the format, I expected it to be more of a Laurie Notaro style of book and was a little disappointed that it wasn't. Kaplan isn't

nearly as funny as Notaro and I got rather weary of the baby talk. I don't have kids so I don't much care if her son likes the boob or does not like the boob.

The Alzheimer's stories about her grandmother were good and hit close to home. My grandfather has the disease so I could relate instantly. Had the entire book been about her grandmother, I'd have rated it much higher.

It's a book I'm glad I didn't pay for, but I don't feel like I want a refund on the time I spent reading it.

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LibraryThing member Seajack

I agree with other reviews. The book ranges from fair to good; nothing is "bad" nor "great" particularly.

LibraryThing member oddbooks

Kaplan was recommended to me as the female David Sederis, and this was not a particularly apt description. Her sense of humor is very bland and her sense of the ridiculous lacks. However, there was a touching sense of familial love in some of her chapters, especially when she discusses having to

institutionalizing her grandmother. But in her hands, these are the stories my girlfriends and I tell without any of the sense of surreality or humor one comes to expect from a Sederis or even an Augustin Burroughs book.

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LibraryThing member carterchristian1

The author had a fairly typical young American Jewess experience, and this autobiography shows events from camp to high school, marriage, deaths of grandparents through a somewhat humorous filter. It would probably be of interest to those past 25, probably not for the younger set.

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