How Did You Get This Number by Sloane Crosley (Epub)

Description

From the author of the sensational bestseller I Was Told There’d Be Cake comes a new book of personal essays brimming with all the charm and wit that have earned Sloane Crosley widespread acclaim, award nominations, and an ever-growing cadre of loyal fans. In Cake readers were introduced to the foibles of Crosley’s life in New York City-always teetering between the glamour of Manhattan parties, the indignity of entry-level work, and the special joy of suburban nostalgia-and to a literary voice that mixed Dorothy Parker with David Sedaris and became something all its own. Crosley still lives and works in New York City, but she’s no longer the newcomer for whom a trip beyond the Upper West Side is a big adventure. She can pack up her sensibility and takes us with her to Paris, to Portugal (having picked it by spinning a globe and putting down her finger, and finally falling in with a group of Portuguese clowns), and even to Alaska, where the “bear bells” on her fellow bridesmaids’ ponytails seemed silly until a grizzly cub dramatically intrudes. Meanwhile, back in New York, where new apartments beckon and taxi rides go awry, her sense of the city has become more layered, her relationships with friends and family more complicated. As always, Crosley’s voice is fueled by the perfect witticism, buoyant optimism, flair for drama, and easy charm in the face of minor suffering or potential drudgery. But in How Did You Get This Number it has also become increasingly sophisticated, quicker and sharper to the point, more complex and lasting in the emotions it explores. And yet, Crosley remains the unfailingly hilarious young Everywoman, healthily equipped with intelligence and poise to fend off any potential mundanity in maturity.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: From Publishers Weekly Nine thoughtful, unfussy essays by the author of the collection I Was Told There’d Be Cake navigate around illusions of youth in the hope that by young adulthood they’ll all add up to happiness. The account of Crosley’s footloose adventure to Lisbon on the eve of her 30th birthday starts things off in rollicking fashion in Show Me on the Doll: without proficient language skills, getting hopelessly lost in the labyrinth of Bairro Alto, and panicking in front of the myriad QVC channels offered by her hotel, Crosley recognizes that Lisbon was a place with a painfully disproportionate self-reflection-to-experience ratio. There is the requisite essay about moving to New York and replacing her anorexic-kleptomaniac roommate with a more acceptable living arrangement: in Crosley’s case, delineated in Take a Stab at It, she is interviewed by the creepily disembodied current occupier of a famous former brothel on the Bowery, McGurk’s Suicide Hall. As well, Crosley delivers witty, syncopated takes on visiting Alaska and Paris, and finding much consolation from a two-timing heartbreak in New York by buying stolen items from her upholstery guy, Daryl, who found them fallen Off the Back of a Truck, as the delightful last selection is titled. These essays are fresh, funny, and eager to be loved. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From Bookmarks Magazine No doubt about it, Crosley is funny. A Thurber Award finalist, Crosley earned her stripes as a comic writer and a keen observer of the sometimes absurd in life in her debut collection, I Was Told There’d Be Cake (an HBO series based on the essays may be in the works). Despite a few overlong pieces and an occasional dud, Crosley avoids the sophomore slump in her new collection, offering wry–and often downright hilarious–takes on all kinds of experiences. What about Crosley’s writing continues to appeal to a wide audience, despite the seemingly narrow scope of her adventures? “Crosley is a kind of anti-adult, refusing to buckle down,” notes the Boston Globe, “refusing to accept the way of the world, refusing to stop her bold mockery, from which she herself is not exempt.” From Booklist *Starred Review* In her first collection of essays, I Was Told There’d Be Cake (2008), Crosley revealed herself as the kind of writer with whom readers could be friends. You could exchange travel stories or compare descriptions of the odor of a NYC taxicab, and you could probably make her laugh, too. In Crosley’s new book, she maintains her humor but inflects it with a sense of melancholy. In the manner of David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell, Crosley tells us about European vacation disasters, the inexhaustible nuances of life in New York, and playing the role of bridesmaid . . . in Alaska. Here even more personal and reflective than in her prior writing, Crosley saves the best for last with the beautifully layered “Off the Back of a Truck,” which also contains the inspiration for the book’s title. In this story about learning the range of what we can and can’t afford, she explains that some things are worth foregoing morality to get (hint: they are rugs and ottomans, not boyfriends). Her ability to be at once so familiar and still surprise us is really showcased here. Smart, clever, and frank, Crosley’s stories are as intimate, and embarrassingly eccentric, as the thoughts we keep to ourselves. –Annie Bostrom Review “A worthy successor to Crosley’s well-received debut, I Was Told There’d Be Cake…Most of the book is funny, some of it even laugh-out-loud, but her literary gifts go well beyond easy laughs. The humor flows naturally and subtly from characters and situations, as if these were real-life short stories. ‘An Abbreviated Catalog of Tongues,’ which initially seems to be a perfunctory pet essay, yet turns revelatory in a number of directions, addressing everything from sibling relationships to her parents’ religion…Perhaps the finest essay is the final one, ‘Off the Back of a Truck,’ a clever, challenging piece from which the book takes its title. Initially about wanting what you can’t afford, it transforms into an exploration of receiving what you want that you can’t afford, through means that you’re only partially willing to admit are pretty shady. Ultimately, though, it becomes a meditation on a romance that forces Crosley to come to terms with a truth she’d suspected and the lie she was living. It’s the least humorous of the collection, but the most unflinchingly true. Confirmation of the promise shown in the author’s bestselling debut.” -Kirkus, starred review “In her first collection of essays, I Was Told There’d Be Cake, Crosley revealed herself as the kind of writer with whom readers could be friends. You could exchange travel stories or compare descriptions of the odor of a NYC taxicab, and you could probably make her laugh, too. In Crosley’s new book, she maintains her humor but inflects it wit ha sense of melancholy. In the manner of David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell, Crosley tells us about European vacation disasters, the inexhaustible nuances of life in New York, and playing the role of bridesmaid…in Alaska. Here even more personal and reflective than in her prior writing, Crosley saves the best for last with the beautifully layered ‘Off the Back of a Truck,’ which also contains the inspiration for the books title…Her ability to be at once so familiar and still surprise us is really showcased here. Smart, clever, and frank, Crosley’s stories are as intimate, and embarrassingly eccentric, as the thoughts we keep to ourselves.” -Booklist, starred review “How sure footed and observant Sloane Crosley is. How perfectly, relentlessly funny. If you needed a bib while reading I Was Told There’d Be Cake, you might consider diapers for How Did You Get This Number.” -David Sedaris About the Author Sloane Crosley’s essays and criticism have appeared in The New York Times, New York Observer, the Village Voice, Playboy, Teen Vogue, Salon, Black Book, Radar, Maxim, and The Believer. She is also the Associate Director of Publicity at Vintage/Anchor Books in New York. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Saw author on a talk show and she seemed great so i bought her book but the stories fell flat in my opinion. 15 pages on how new york taxi cabs smell bad was too much for me.

⭐I enjoyed this book. My only let-down was the book being falsely touted as a “comedy”. The author has a nice sense of humor displayed in her word choices, however, my personal definition of “comedy book” is one that is written primarily to amuse. Maybe I’m judging too harshly. I have a habit of giving up on reading a book if by page one hundred I don’t care what happens to the characters or how the story ends. I read this one through and through.

⭐Good reading material

⭐I really enjoyed this book, which was the first Crosley book I read. Her sometimes self-depreciating approach runs between hilarious and thoughtful, and it’s easy to identify with her stories. I’m reading whatever she’s written.

⭐Biting and brutally honest…and so, so funny. The third Crosley book I have read…how I wish there were many, many more!

⭐Unfortunately, I did not enjoy Crosley’s sophomore collection of essays as much as I recalled enjoying the first. Perhaps I had set my expectations a bit too high – but where I remembered smooth, clever writing that brought me to laugh out loud in several places, this collection contained convoluted, tangent-filled essays that did not evoke so much as a chortle or chuckle from me. I maybe smiled a few times – but more at some of the common remembrances – like the board game, Girl Talk. In fact that essay was probably the strongest in the whole collection.Because of my fond memories for her debut collection, I will continue to keep an eye out for Crosley’s work, but after finishing this, I am not particularly eager for any new publications.

⭐Although most of the book is lighthearted and humorous Ms. Crosley also shares poignant and painful expereinces of her life. Having experienced dyslexia in myself and with my child I appreciated her explanations of how it is to live with, and the wonderful ways humans adapt to deal with it.

⭐Sloane Crosley is one funny woman and her humor is present in every essay/story in the book. Although I read mixed reviews, her stories are empathetic and something I already went through or will probably go through in the next few years. She is a great representation of young-adult angst… if such a thing exists.

⭐Having enjoyed ‘I was Told There’d be Cake’ I was excited to read this one. I love Sloane’s voice and narrative style. It was funny and full of her wit, but just didn’t live up to her first book.

⭐You know what made me read Sloane Crosley’s first book (which is called “I was told there’d be cake” and is, ultimately, much better than this one)? One of the glossy magazines referred to her as the new Carrier Bradshaw. Funny, sexy, and now a New Yorker.There is nothing much I can say about this book, which I finished today (one of my friends gave up after the first two essays). I would not recommend it as a book by a comedian or by a woman with a gorgeous sense of humour you can relate to. I don’t think there are many people out there who would like to live in a house haunted by ghosts of suicidal prostitutes, or tell sad (almost verging on cruelty) stories about pet animals, or blow up a big deal out of the usage of tampons or pepper sprays. It might all sound good in Ms Crosley’s mind, but not so exciting on the paper. The truly worth-reading essay is called “Light Pollution” (published in the Vice magazine some time ago), about the State of Alaska, which made me want to go and see it for myself even more than I wanted to before. But maybe it’s just me.Maybe you will enjoy this book of, in my opinion, quite unsatisfactory collection of stories, which might have had a potential were they not so badly administered by Ms Crosley’s language. It seems that she is much too proud of her vocabulary and tends to construct sentences bursting with words that you never hoped to see within one paragraph. The sentences themselves are too long to grasp for a book which is, let’s face it, no Booker prize, but merely a beach holiday read. This book is trying hard to be a sophisticated beach read. So sophisticated, that by the time you finish the sentence (that feels as long as a paragraph), you are not quite sure what the storyteller tried to tell us and, frankly, was it worth the effort?Just when I was about to give up and braced myself for the last essay, not surprisingly called “Off the back of the truck”, Sloane pulled a trick I haven’t seen before. The story is not about furniture. The story is about relationships, deluded relationships and, to be more precise, break-ups. We have all been through at least one, but I haven’t read a story so heartbreakingly real in describing all the break-up cycles you agonize through, all those questions, all those “time heals” mantras. That essay is one amazingly written piece of work of a broken heart. Brava, girl!Maybe you will find your own gem in this collection of stories. Maybe you will love the book. Good luck. I was left a bit disappointed.

⭐Alles ok,

⭐

⭐Not nearly as much humour as expected, mostly crass, disconnected stories with no point. Unnecessary swearing and generally poor use of language.

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