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| I Was Told There'd Be Cake | 
 enlarge | Author: Sloane Crosley
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $5.52
You Save: $8.48 (61%)
New (53) Used (35) Collectible (1) from $5.36
Avg. Customer Rating:  74 reviews
Sales Rank: 512
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 159448306X
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.6
EAN: 9781594483066
ASIN: 159448306X
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! NEW Book! May have remainder mark. Most orders ship within 1 BUSINESS DAY with ORDER CONFIRMATION.
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Product Description
Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions-or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character that's aiming for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. I Was Told There'd Be Cake introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 69 more reviews...
 Mildly entertaining collection April 11, 2008
94 out of 116 found this review helpful
While the writing is pretty good, and this collection of essays has its moments of cleverness, overall it's not as funny (by no means would I call it "hilarious") or interesting as hyped. The essays suffer somewhat from a steeping in twentysomething self-absorption/middle-class angst, and don't qualify for inclusion in the same league as David Sedaris and Dorothy Parker, because they lack a certain edginess. The stardard white-girl fare (first job, mean boss; being in a wedding), is, at times, mildly entertaining, but not particularly memorable. Bottom line: it's okay.
 Um...not really that funny. May 2, 2008
34 out of 38 found this review helpful
I feel mean sayin' it, but it's true. I was all excited about curling up with this read after reading great reviews. I jumped ship after about 30 pages. It's not David Sedaris. It's not anything remotely as funny or interesting or insightful. It reminds me of a girl who goes out with you and your work friends and tells embarrassing stories about herself, and you laugh/wince, cause you're a bit drunk, and then, the next day, you feel kinda bad for her, like she exposed too much, and that she kinda needed the attention, and you're kinda embarrassed for her, even though she isn't. I lived in NY for a long time and these people are all over the place. This is her book.
 "I had always chalked up my feelings of isolation as a child to being a child" September 18, 2008
31 out of 35 found this review helpful
If you have American kids -- or may have them someday -- did you ever think of raising them in an interesting foreign country so they could come back as teens with a high coolness quotient? No? Would you send a Jewish ten-year-old to a Christian summer camp? and if you did, would you be surprised to hear that she played Mary in the "Christmas in July" pageant after the blond Girl from Darien was hobbled by a broken toe? Is there a collection of anything in your kitchen drawers, let's say toy ponies for example, that you worry about your mother finding if you die unexpectedly? and if so, would you dispose of them on a Brooklyn-bound subway train? Have you ever locked yourself out on moving day, from both old AND new apartments, requiring two expensive calls to the same sarcastic locksmith?
No? Then you're not like Sloane Crosley, the twenty-something author of I Was Told There'd Be Cake. This little book of wildly assorted essays is a kind of cubist blueprint for the young, well-off, well-educated New York woman. Crosley's writing is irreverent about her family ("I have never met two people more afraid of their house burning down than my parents") and particularly about her (we hope) well-disguised friends. She says of a pair of dinner guests: "Because there are no more hippies, you don't call them hippies. (But if you ever saw two people on a beach, gorging themselves on whole-wheat burritos and pot, picking sand out of each other's toes, and diving into the water naked, that would be them.)"
You may wonder whether you care about Sloane Crosley's observations on her short life to date. That's one question I can't answer for you. I will tell you that while her experiences may be alien to anything you have ever done, thought or felt, the girl can write intelligently and with great humor; there are unifying principles in the human existence and she catalogs a subset of them very well . We're bound to hear more from this young writer, and if she brings her sardonic wit to deeper subjects it will be very well worth reading. This book was an entertaining look at her world. One star off for the essay format, as I believe her book would have been better served by a more linear memoir format.
Linda Bulger, 2008
 Satisfied Reader April 4, 2008
29 out of 45 found this review helpful
I thought this book was absolutely hilarious - not at all the typical breezy chick-lit that's usually out there. I actually laughed out loud at several points, and you can just tell how intelligent the author is. She didn't talk down to her reader at all; rather, she makes you feel like she understands you, and that these types of situations happen to everyone.
A great, funny read!
My new favorite author April 19, 2008
19 out of 31 found this review helpful
I Was Told There'd Be Cake is a series of essays by sometimes-contributor to the Village Voice Sloane Crosley. There are fifteen essays total, and they cover typical twenty-something subjects, such as moving into a new walkup apartment in New York City (not as easy as it would appear), attending the wedding of every girl you knew in high school that you'd forgotten about (been there, done that), a semidysfunctional family (her family IS my family), and a satanic first boss.
Sloane Crosley tells these stories with humor and insight and she has a truly unique voice. But there were also times where I found myself thinking, "I think the same way!" Or, "I wish I'd thought of that!" It's a completely honest, open kind of storytelling, one that you don't see in many writers of today. Being a twenty-something myself, I could completely empathize with this book--made even better if you understand the cultural references (Oregon Trail, anyone?) This book is a complete gem. I'm going to recommend it to every twenty-something I know.
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