Inside January 27, 2004's Issue

Enjoy great Italian food at The Brick Oven Bistro

'Good in bed' offers 'wonderful wit and interesting twists'

By Amanda Cordle
acord00@highlands.edu
Staff Writer

“Good in Bed,” a novel by Jennifer Weiner, is a delightful mixture of comedy and drama.

At 28, Cannie Shapiro is a Princeton graduate struggling to find the right man and sell her screenplay. She has finally made peace with her curvy, plus-sized body and landed a job as pop culture reporter for The Philadelphia Examiner.

Things are going along nicely for Cannie despite the fact that her mother has just come busting out of the closet at fifty-six, and her father vanished from her life long ago.

Then one day Cannie's world comes crashing down and her roller coaster year begins. She opens up a national women's magazine and reads “Loving a Larger Woman” above her ex-boyfriend's byline. The entire nation was reading about her worst fears, her intimate encounters with Bruce (her ex), and her amplitude.

Next, Bruce's father dies and Cannie lets herself slip under the covers with her ex one last time after the funeral. Soon after she enrolls herself in a weight management program at the University of Philadelphia.

She finds out the funeral romp resulted in a pregnancy, and that Bruce has a new girlfriend. When everything seems to have hit rock bottom Cannie unbelievably sells her screenplay and heads to California, leaving all the pain and people in her life behind in Philadelphia.

The story continues to get more complicated as Cannie meets a famous actress at an interview gone awry; they instantly become best friends. Cannie moves in with her and gets a makeover.

Cannie then meets her movie star crush and nurses him through a drug induced vomiting session. It's a total circus.

She heads back to Philadelphia only to endure more heartache and a complication with her pregnancy.

During these troubling times Cannie sinks into a depression so dark readers may wonder if she'll ever recover. In a surprising twist things end up wonderfully for Cannie and her baby, and she finds true love with the most unexpected person.

“Good in Bed” is a truly touching story sprinkled with wonderful wit and interesting twists, but at times it all seems to be a bit too much as Weiner introduces one outrageous character after another. Readers are introduced to Cannie's lesbian mother and her butch lover, her wanton sister, her father that deserted his family, her chronically depressed brother, kooky friends and coworkers, fellow fat-class women, movie stars, and entertainment agents from Hades.

Despite this long list of odd characters and a few too many preposterous situations, the book reads smoothly and has a great message. Weiner offers a new glance at the wretchedness placed on women by their lovers, parents, society, and most of all themselves.

HBO will soon be making a TV version of Weiner's novel. If the reviews go well, “Good in Bed” may replace the extremely popular “Sex and the City.”

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