- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Pocket; Reprint edition (1 Aug 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0671034391
- ISBN-13: 978-0671034399
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.9 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,048,505 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
‘Forrester has created an unlikely new genre: imagine Sterne crossed with Sue Townsend. Enormous fun.’
Time Out
‘Forrester’s novel is an absolute gem. Don’t read it too quickly – every turn of phrase deserves to be savoured… wildly funny.’
Vogue
Product Description
From a strange and wonderful literary land where Jorge Luis Borges meets Jilly Cooper, comes Anouchka Grose Forrester’s dazzlingly witty and accomplished first novel.
‘What is stupider than a receptionist? So stupid that no one dares offer her discourse publicly without a serious mediation: novel, play or analysis (between tweezers)’
Adapted from Roland Barthes
Well, that’s the view from one side of the desk, but now, Anouchka Forrester, new writing talent and ex-receptionist, reveals what’s really going on between phone calls…
Trapped in a temporary job in a sleepy academic institution, a nameless receptionist attempts both to conduct, and write a novel about, her love affair with the mysterious Man Who Mustn’t be Mentioned while impeded by the unwelcome distractions of paid employment. Soon, a simple love story which was meant to start at the beginning and finish at the end becomes a consideration of such vital topics as Visitors, Libel, Master/Slave Dialectics, Lunch, Evil, Ambivalence, the invention of the telephone and the personal safety of the Queen’s husband, as narrator and reader are forced to confront the confusing and comical relationship between fiction and real life.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
I'll tell you the main thing you need to know about me, after which everything else will be subsidiary. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
I'll tell you the main thing you need to know about me, after which everything else will be subsidiary. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The notion of a receptionist writing a novel as she sits around waiting for the phone to ring and packages to arrive isn't a bad premise for a smart romantic comedy. Unfortunately, Forrester fails to deliver any kind of interesting plot, nor does she offer up any startling insights into the role of a receptionist. The book starts out peppered with little icons indicating telephone, package and visitor interruptions-a cute conceit that even the author realizes wears thin as the book goes on. The people she works for/with, start as mysteries, and more or less end that way, aside from one highly predictable character. The main subject of the receptionist's typing is her confusion about an affair she's having with a weird courier who doesn't seem to like her that much, and her indecision over what to do with her agreeable, if unsexy, boyfriend. There is a modicum of pleasure to be scraped from this, but all in all, the writing is rather ordinary, not particularly witty, and the chronology of the events in the book is somewhat confusing. The whole effort struck me as a weak attempt to follow in the wake of the success of Bridget Jones Diary.
Format:Paperback
If you like Lawrence Sterne you'll love this. Stupid yet strangely moving. I laughed, I cried.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
15 reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
JaneAustin meets WingDings...
13 Oct 1999
Format:Hardcover
Intrigued by the VOGUE magazine review, comparing this book to Bridget Jones' Diary and Jane Austen, I began this book with pleasant anticipation. I'd suffered through a bad stint working as an over-qualified receptionist at a small-town newspaper and was looking forward to a witty romp through the world of pompous executives, witchy office managers, strange gnomes from accounting, etc. I love Jane Austen, and Bridget Jones' Diary was one of the funniest new novels of the 90's so Ringing For You seemed promising.
What an abject disappointment. The narrator, a receptionist, writes about her life and loves as she sits at her desk at work. This cute plot device wears thin almost immediately due to the constant travel back and forth in time and place along a space-time continuum apparent only to the author as the receptionist recounts her exploits. To compound this problem, the author tries to affect a clever conceit whereby the receptionist is completely confused to the point of brain-death over every aspect of her messed-up life one minute, yet in the next she can smugly quote Proust and wax profoundly on subjects of wonderful complexity. Far from making the receptionist a well-rounded modern woman, the heroine appears schizophrenic!
The worst aspect of this book is that the plot devices above, as well as the cutesy little technique of using WingDing symbols to represent events that occur in the course of the receptionist's day (think Highlights) do not obscure the fact that the writing never opens up to allow you into the characters, the place or even the general vicinity of the book. I never cared about the protagonist nor any of the supporting cast. The entire reading experience was superficial and trite. The height of my emotional experience was vaguely wondering if the receptionist would end up with the MWMM or her boyfriend. I shut the book at its end and have never once wondered what was happening now to any of the people in it.
This book seems to have been hacked together as a way to capitolize on the popularity of Bridget Jones' Diary. Read the real thing and skip this trumped-up attempt to introduce Jane Austen to WingDings. Better yet, go find your old copy of Persuasion and dig in.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Bridgette Jones with a Master's Degree
29 Aug 2000
Format:Hardcover
When the heroine of this book claims that you may recognize some of the people in it by thier descriptions, she was right!! There was so much of myself in her I felt like we were sisters from the first page. I thought the book was funny, thoughtful, and yes - a little crazy at times...exactly like we all are. The book jumps around and the funny symbols for phone calls and packages and the MWMM can get a bit tiresome...but overall...the voice is a clever and engaging one. I read this book over the weekend...a perfect way to read it...in a relaxed, casual atmosphere. Enjoy!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Compare this book to Bridget and you miss the point
1 Mar 2002
Format:Hardcover
While, I don't think Ms. Forrester has written the great British novel here, I think it is an intelligent and, at times, witty book. Yes, it can be irritating with it's cutesy fonts and initials, but she makes some good observations here. One can see her writing style emerging and there is a definite voice. I think we should keep a watch out for future books from this author. Once she masters some character development, she could be a force to reckon with. I found the novel fun even if the ending was a little unsatisfying. I say give it a chance.
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