Think twice when you walk past the glove counter....

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	• Shopgirl: A Novella Steve Martin Hyperion, 2006 - 144 pages average customer review:based on 15 reviews view larger image
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Think twice when you walk past the glove counter....

I can recall seeing the preview for this movie and thought it looked pretty interesting, I have always liked Steve Martin and it seemed like a different role for him. Yet, time and life went by and I never saw the film. However, this past September I was in a bookstore in Chicago and found the book "Shopgirl" on the discount table. Remembering that I wanted to see the film, I bought the book. I didn't realize until I saw the book physically that Steve Martin wrote it. After reading this book, it has sparked my desire again to want to see the movie.

Shopgirl would be considered a novella, which is a work of fiction that is under 200 pages. Shopgirl runs about a 130 pages, so it fits this paradigm nicely. The book is about a 28 year old girl named Mirabelle Buttersfield who work's at Neiman Marcus in the glove department. Mirabelle is a college educated person, but hasn't been able to find a "real" job. Therefore, she numbly drifts from day to day working as a Shopgirl in the glove department. She is an artist and is waiting for something wonderful or awful to happen to promote some sort of change in her life. There are two love interests in this book, Jeremy the 26 year old boy who doesn't want to grow up and Ray Porter the older man who showers women in gifts yet treats their emotions callous. This creates a unique and different take on the proverbial "love triangle".

This book was classified as a comedy, but I don't know if I would really agree with that taxonomy. There were some humorous parts here and there, but nothing that made me laugh out loud. As a matter of fact, I found many parts of this book parallel with "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath. This is due to the deep depression that Mirabelle's character goes through; it mirrors the depression of Ester Greenwood from Plath's novel. Mind you PARTS of Shopgirl reminds me of "The Bell Jar". These two books are very different, so I hope I am not misunderstood when I made the comparison.

I found Shopgirl to be very good book/novella despite it only being 130 pages long. I also remembering hearing once that Steve Martin would like to be remembered as a writer not an actor. I don't know if that is a true quote or not, but this book proves that he has nothing to be ashamed of as his abilities as an author. Therefore his legacy as writer would be a good one.

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A lesson in love, a lesson for life

again, Shopgirl was a reluctant read for me at first because it was a required book for my retail merchandising class. Why? More like a modern literature class. Obviously, the store Mirabelle works at is Neiman Marcus, one of the best places to start in merchandising, probably why I had to read Shopgirl. After about the second chapter, I started understanding why Shopgirl is a book for girls wanting to work in merchandising: a cautionary tale. Then I started getting into Shopgirl, getting engrossed in Mirabelle's emotions. In the end, I'm a bit sad, because of the heartbreak Mirabelle had to go through to come to her lesson and appreciation of what she has. Wow. Overall, Shopgirl is a complete story packaged in a short and readable novella.

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A slim book for an evening

This novella (meaning a short book approximately one-third the length of a typical novel) surprised me with its range of character development. Each of the three characters changes or learns profoundly in this book. Jeremy, the character who wins the fair lady's hand in the end, is portrayed as changing more than seems realistic. On the other hand, he is 24 years old and that is a time of life when lots of people grow and improve. Maybe a sloppy slacker can turn into a hottie in the space of a year, as Jeremy does in this novella.

The portrayal of Ray, the older man with money who carefully courts the girl, is subtle despite the fact that he really is the stereotypical rich older man on the prowl. The difference is that Ray plays by certain ground rules which he has shared, and he thinks the young lady with whom he has the love affair is playing by his same rules. But she isn't. She becomes dependent on him.

Don't think that because you saw the excellent film that you won't enjoy the book. You will enjoy the book even more if have seen the film. After all, Steve Martin wrote the novella first and then the screenplay. And it's a slim little book, just right for a long evening's read with a glass of wine.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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