Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress

November 1, 2004
Gilman's memoir of growing up on Manhattan's upper
Upper West Side in the '70s starts slowly but gathers momentum. Readers who find themselves drifting during Gilman's reveries on lying during show-and-tell will find themselves pleasantly riveted by the time she's getting in touch with her roots as a reporter for the Jewish Week
. Gilman, author of 2001's Kiss My Tiara
, a women's self-help guide, makes common scenarios fresh with humor and wry social commentary; on the first day of school, she quickly learns "boys might be fighters, but girls could be terrorists." Gilman's ear for dialogue is dead-on. When her brother asks their dad why their Jewish family celebrates Christmas, she doesn't miss a beat: " 'Because your grandmother's a Communist and your mother loves parties,' said my father. 'Now eat your supper.' " These one-liners don't detract, however, from a serious and moving look at one family's efforts to keep itself intact through divorce and other life challenges. After her parents separate, Gilman, then in her mid-20s, fears she and her brother had spent their childhoods in happy oblivion while their parents were "spellbound with misery." Probably not: Gilman's recollections of moving bumpily toward adulthood are keenly observant. She's nicely made the leap from self-help to narrative nonfiction. Agent, Irene Skolnick.

September 1, 2005
Adult/High School -Gilman has a gift for showing the humor in the ordinary. Her memoir takes readers from her childhood in the late 1960s and early '70s through adulthood and marriage. As the book opens, she is reminiscing about the summer of 1969 when she was four and her parents took her to a commune where one of their friends was filming a documentary. She got to personify -innocence - by dancing naked on the beach with other children. Other experiences include the challenges of being the only Jewish girl attending a private Presbyterian school, her mother's enthusiasm for transcendental meditation, and her own infatuation (and ultimate meeting) with Mick Jagger. Set against the backdrop of New York's Upper West Side, her descriptions of the insecurities that plagued her as an adolescent ring with truth. Gilman's narrative illustrates how the highs and lows that mark the teen years are remarkably similar among generations, and suggests that perhaps the gap isn't so wide after all. As she shares some of her adult experiences -career choices, the effects of her parents' divorce after she and her brother were grown, a work-related trip to the Polish concentration camps -her refreshing blend of humor and frankness does not trivialize the significance of her observations. Gilman's is not an extraordinary life, but she offers a view of American culture over the past 35 years that is compelling and highly readable." -Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Library System, VA"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2004
Gilman's first book, " Kiss My Tiara " (2001), offered a raunchy, defiant alternative to retro dating and lifestyle guides such as " The Rules" . Her latest is an acerbic, often side-splitting memoir that chronicles her bohemian youth in New York City's Upper West Side and her first years of adult life. Gilman's wisecracking, raw narrative about universal experiences--defeating bullies, weathering parental divorce, trying to find meaningful work--is reminiscent of David Sedaris' writing and will draw a similarly wide audience. Gen Xers will howl with recognition over the cultural specifics of a 1970s childhood--the outfits, the folksongs, the macrobiotic food, the parents determined to teach their children transcendental meditation--and women, particularly those with a liberal bent, will easily relate to Gilman's struggle to define her own alternative to knee-jerk feminism and the tyrannical self-help titles that counsel a return to 1950s sex roles. Hilarious, assured, and moving, these are wildly entertaining stories that readers will want to share instantly with friends. Expect demand. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)