I See You Made an Effort by Annabelle Gurwitch

Title: I See You Made an Effort: Compliments, Indignities and Survival Stories 
Author: Annabelle Gurwitch 
Publisher: Blue Rider Press
Publication Date: March 6, 2014
ISBN: 9780399166181
Number of Pages: 256 
How I Got It: NetGalley
Format: Kindle

NetGalley Summary:

Actress and humorist Annabelle Gurwitch returns with I See You Made an Effort, a book of essays so wickedly funny it may make you forget your last birthday. Not one to shy away from the grisly realities of middle age, the “slyly subversive” (O, The Oprah Magazine) Gurwitch confronts the various indignities faced by femmes d’un certain age with candor, wit, and a healthy dose of hilarious self-deprecation. 

Whether falling in lust at the Genius bar, navigating the extensive—and treacherously expensive—anti aging offerings at a department-store beauty counter, coping with the assisted suicide of her best friend, negotiating the ins and outs of acceptable behavior with her teenage kid, or the thudding financial reality of the “never-tirement” generation that leads her to petty theft, Gurwitch’s essays prove her a remarkably astute writer in her prime (in so many ways). Is this the beginning of the Eileen Fisher years? Where does one conduct an affair with a younger man? Is 50 the new 40? Or is 50 still just…50?

Scorchingly honest, surreally and riotously funny, I See You Made an Effort is the ultimate coming-of-middle-age story and a must-read for women of all ages. Reading glasses not included.

My Review:

This book was funny but it may have been funnier to me if I was 50. At 37, I can laugh at myself and the funny things that aging does to women or the general neuroses we are all victim of. Staying awake worrying about family, money, the Holocaust, anything really, until you realize you are not going to fall asleep and then wondering if you would feel better or worse if you took a sleeping pill this late at night. Gurwitch points out the limited shopping selections we have as women once we age out of the juniors section but are not quite ready for elastic waistband pants at Coldwater Creek. I currently am the mother of a teenager roughly the same age as Gurwitch's son. I am exhausted now and can only imagine how much more tired I would be if I were a decade older and dealing with the whirling vortex that is the teenage years. In short, I got a few chuckles out of Gurwitch's stories but I didn't crack up. If I revisit this read in 13 years when I am turning 50, I may find it hilarious, but to me today it is merely lukewarm. 

**  I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review **