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94 of 103 found the following review helpful:
 Witty, funny, fun and surprisingly moving debut May 14, 2001
By Carol S.
I must confess that I was predisposed to like "Good in Bed," since I've been a big fan of Jennifer Weiner's newspaper columns for some time. I wasn't, however, prepared for how fine a first novel she has produced, or how moved I was by Cannie's story. The book begins with a hilarious hook: protagonist Cannie Shapiro, entertainment columnist for a large Philadelphia newspaper, realizes that her recently-ex-boyfriend has been hired by a Cosmo-like magazine to write a [adult] column. To her horror, Cannie realizes that the pseudo-anonymous woman "C." in Bruce's first article is her. To make this invasion of privacy even more humiliating, the column is an unexpectedly perceptive treatment of Cannie's weight problem and its effect on their relationship. At first glance, one might assume the snarky tone of the first few pages would continue as the novel spun out in a kind of lightweight revenge fantasy. But Weiner uses Cannie's heartbreaking invasion of privacy as jumping off point for so much more. We see Cannie grow and change, exorcising childhood demons (mostly), getting over Bruce (at last), and most moving of all, finally coming to terms with her place in life (and yes, her weight, too). If the plot is moved along by a few too many incredible coincidences, if the book seems almost too jam-packed with characters and subplots, well, these are minor criticisms of a finely-written and sensitive first novel. Just promise me, Jennifer, you won't let Camryn Manheim star in the movie version.......
61 of 72 found the following review helpful:
 Plus Size Women Rule . . . Except This One Oct 04, 2003
Like others who hated this book, I really wanted to enjoy it. Like the main character, I'm a fat word-lover, often too smart and sarcastic for my own good, who considered the Pink Rose Bakery in Philadelphia a second home. Unfortunately, I spent most of my time screaming at this book, and when I was finally finished I threw it against my wall. On the one hand, I admire the author for presenting a full-figured, flawed character. However, Cannie, the heroine, remains self-centered, self-pitying, immature, judgmental, condesceding, elitist, and cruel throughout the whole book, and is repeatedly indulged by friends, loved ones, and worst of all the author, Jennifer Weiner. Weiner allows Cannie to dance through life without having to take responsibility for herself, and the "redemption" she experiences rings false. Worse, the book is littered with cliches, including, most offensively, a lesbian with two cats named Gertrude and Alice, who is reviled by Cannie and her siblings even though it may be the closest her mother has come to a partner in her life. I pity the lesbian reader who reads this book and encounters such a one-dimensional, snide rendering of a stereotype.
A thing that aggravates me about reviews of this book is that many claim it's better than Bridget Jones because the character is heavier, a "real fat woman." I found Bridget a lot more likeable, regardless of her weight, because you got to see her standing by her friends. Cannie seems to have friends who treat her a lot better than she treats them, or herself. While I'm sure that the author saw Cannie as very kind, the glimpses of a loving Cannie are few and far between her monologues of self-loathing. Also, I think that the idea that the "realness" of a woman being centered around her weight is just as dangerous as arguing that her beauty is based on her weight.
I would have loved to have read a story about a woman who finds love and beauty within herself without the aid of fairy godmothers or a charming prince. I'll even let a character have the fairy tale if she stops blaming everyone else for everything that's gone wrong in her life, especially people who try to love her or who have done nothing to her (blaming the evil people is worthwhile only to a point, and she exceeds it). Neither of those things happened to my satisfaction in this book. I wouldn't want someone like Cannie in my life, and I don't want this book on my shelf.
18 of 19 found the following review helpful:
Good In Bed: Best In Print! May 04, 2001
This is a really wonderful novel. Touching, sweet, warm, often-hysterically funny, Jennifer Weiner's debut novel is the kind of book you try to pace yourself on because you know you want to parcel out the joy, but find yourself staying up until 2 am finishing because you can't put it down. Cannie Shapiro is a remarkable heroine with a true voice, wise yet still learning, embattled yet still fighting. This isn't one of those book where unhappy girl finds happiness by losing weight and finding a man. This is a book where happiness comes from self-acceptance and the realization that one is not alone, and if there happens to be a guy around, well, all the better. Cannie is great. The office stuff rings true. So does that evil publicist in NYC. But it's more than the truth of how things feel -- it's Cannie/Jennifer's voice in describing her universe, so funny and warm, like a friend you wish you had. I even liked Nifkin! Guys, ignore the pink stuff on the cover, and hide the title if it embarrasses you to read in public -- this one's for us too. Everyone should read this book, read it now, then buy another copy for a friend. I cannot say enough good things about this book. Read it: you'll see. It deserves to be a movie, and it will be a great movie. Whatever Weiner has in store for us next, I'll be first in line.
87 of 106 found the following review helpful:
Nothing I expected Aug 08, 2005
By Booklvr5
I read many reviews here on Amazon about how great this book was so I decided to give it a shot...big mistake. The first part of this book was funny at times, clever, and made me want to read more. The farther along this book progressed I found myself hating the main character more and more. She was whiney, self absorbed, and rude to everybody she wasn't friends with.
The character of Cannie was so utterly bitter that I found myself actually hoping she wouldn't get the fairy tale ending we all knew she would get. I'm all for the idea of having a plus size main character, but she was absoultey horrid to anybody who wasn't plus sized in this novel. The writer made you sympathize for Cannnie with all of her weight struggles, but the way she made thin people into evil beings made me like Cannie even less. She went too overboard with the "woe is me, because I'm fat" issue. For instance, the thin nurse in the doctors office who was trying to be pleasent to everybody, the author made her out to be this horrible character all because she was thin. I really had it with this issue when she was at some ridiculous Hollywood party and she told some "size 0" movie star she liked her music and the lady responds with "If I had a nickel for every fat girl who said that to me..." *NOBODY* is going to be that rude, and that is the way all thinner people are portrayed in this book. I have no problem with having the main character be larger, and showing that bigger people can be successful and elaborating on the hardships and mean spirited ways people can be just because of a bigger size, but it's extremely condescending that the author turns around and does the same thing to thin people throughout the entire book.
The BIGGEST complaint with this book was the complete and total lack of realism. Meeting a multi-millionare actress in a bathroom and becoming best friends over a night of drinking? Having your movie script which nobody would touch all of a sudden being turned into a movie? Having a rich, handsome doctor fall madly in love with you? Going out to a lake with an incredibly attractive movie star who you've been lusting after for years? And then having him leave his sports car there for you to drive for the weekend??
This book went from starting off fresh and clever, to quickly becoming stale and repulsive by the amount of whining and constant references to her ex boyfriend on every other page, to becoming such a ridiculous fairy tale that not many would enjoy.
By the end of this book I couldn't stand Cannie and understood why Bruce didn't want her back.
39 of 46 found the following review helpful:
Skip this book May 19, 2003
By W. Dagnatchew
"Avid book reader"
This book started out good but quickly went downhill. The main character Cannie spends much of the book whining about how hard her life is because she is overweight. She tells you she hates skinny people and delights in trying to make them look foolish. Bruce Cannie's ex-boyfriend writes an insightful article about their relationship and her problems with her self image because of her weight, but Cannie is incensed because he calls her fat and overweight in a national magazine and misses most of what he is trying to convey in the article. We are also supposed to empathize with her because Bruce called her fat even though she describes herself as fat and overweight throughout the book. Besides since Bruce doesn't want Cannie we are supposed to believe he is a jerk ... . I couldn't understand why Bruce or any of Cannie's friends put up with her or wasted any time on someone who was so insecure, obnoxious and needy.
Oh wait, as the author keeps telling us she's "funny" and fun to be around, although bitter would be a more accurate description of many of Cannie's not so funny one-liners. Cannie goes from being a promising character to a boring, self-involved, narcissistic, grating, selfish jerk. The author has the main character making so many one-liners it was hard to empathize with or get any real feeling of the character. When she was describing her relationship with her father all I could think was "okay, whatever." We are supposed to feel sorry for her because her father "forced" her to go to Princeton, and made her pay for some of her tuition. Cry me a river! She does a poor me story about her time at Princeton even though she got to write for the school paper and accomplished her goals. None of that mattered though because everyone at Princeton had "perfect bodies and shiny hair", oh the injustice of it all Poor Cannie. Dont let me get started on her childhood where she whines that her 5 bedroom house wasnt painted as often as the neighbors or the in-ground pool in her backyard wasnt well maintained after her father left. These are her childhood problems?! Give me a break!
None of the other characters in the book were developed. Apparently they have no lives or problems of their own. They merely exist to be a sounding board for Cannie and to tell her how funny and wonderful she is. When the story turned Hollywood the author really lost me then. I am annoyed with myself for even bothering to finish this book.
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