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Book Reviews Title Girlfriend
44 Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story Is she "the one"-
or is she just girlfriend 44? A hilarious account
of the plight of the single male… Since he was ten
years old, Harry has had one ambition - to find the
perfect girl for him. Forty-three women and twenty
years later he is no nearer his goal. He doesn't
ask for much: just a beautiful intellectual who
doesn't mind his constant infidelity. Harry's roommate,
Gerrard, once found true love-but he didn't realise
it until the day she left him. Only two women have
met Gerrard's exacting criteria, and he's not
hopeful that he'll find another. Even if he does,
he's not sure he can trust her not to grow old
eventually. And then Harry
and Gerrard meet Alice. Alice is not only
the perfect woman but also the only woman in the
world Harry and Gerrard can agree on.
Unfortunately, she seems to like them both. Gerrard
wants Alice for himself, but Harry is not about to
give up his plight for love. But can a man who
thinks you can't love someone properly if they have
a big nose grow up fast enough to win the girl of
his dreams? Girlfriend 44 is
a funny, frightening look into the minds and morals
(or lack thereof) of modern men. We
Say This book is alot
like the protagonist, Harry: not as funny as it
thinks it is. Harry, a thirty-two year old
Londoner, has just said goodbye to his latest
girlfriend, Emily, who is headed off to Antarctica
for a year - with sixty men. Sad only to say
goodbye to the idea of her, Harry quickly
reestablishes his single life of bars, beer, and
the unending search for a shag. One night, he
receives a drunken phone call from his friend,
Farley, saying he is ending it all for the love a
girl named Alice. Hearing this from a guy Harry
terms "beyond promiscuous" has Harry and his
flatmate Gerrard perversely daydreaming of the
perfect Alice before they even meet her.
So begins
Girlfriend 44. The rest of the book chronicles
Harry and Gerrard desperately fighting over Alice,
each determined to win her. Not only does she fit
all of Harry and Gerrard's unrealistic standards of
the perfect girl, but Harry might even be, er,
falling in love with her. In their attempts to get
the girl, Harry resorts to sometimes funny, most
often pathetic humor and Gerrard to begging and
sabotaging Harry's reputation (which is not too
difficult). Alice ultimately chooses Harry, but not
before Harry has potentially botched it by having a
one-night stand with Gerrard's ex-girlfriend,
Paula. Girlfriend 44
offers up plentiful description and inner monologue
about a single guy in his 30s. Once in a while
Barrowcliffe even shows some true insight about
young urban life, amidst his 'all men are pigs'
editorialising. But the limited dialogue and lack
of wit make this book read excruciatingly slow - to
the point where the few good parts are lost among
all of Harry's musings and wonderings and
schemings. Had this book been slimmed by a hundred
pages or so, the pace might've increased beyond
that of a snail's. Instead, this book left me
floundering, wondering whether it was worth the
time to see what happened with Harry and Alice.
For a better read
about thirtysomething flawed men and their attempts
at finding and holding on to true love, try
Take
a Girl Like You,
by Kingsley Amis. It's by far wittier and
definitely more concise. Review by:
Michelle Johnson |
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