I had been so looking forward to reading "Sweetbitter," darlings, especially after the hype it got. I figured it was perfect for the Summer--and I was right, up to a point--and that this would be to the food service industry, what "The Devil Wears Prada" was to fashion. And it is, to a point. Where things go wrong is that while Miss Danler is a master chronicler, she is a poor fictionalizer; this is barely disguised autobiography, and should really have been marketed as non-fiction. The other problem is Miss Danler has no real specific point of view beyond, "Oh, I am this young thing just soaking up Life." Gag me with a spoon! As a result, her book has no perspective, and unlike Weisberger, no wit.
Her sexual obsession with Jake get too much coverage. When she finally has her orgasm riding him in the taxi back seat, I was like, "Ho hum." Not many of us have that experience, but we all, when young, think about it, at one time or another, so, like, what's new, darlings???????/
Simone is a much more fascinating character, even more so than Tess, the stand-in narrator for Danler. If a movie is made of "Sweetbitter" I would love to see how Simone is cast.
On the plus side, Danler catches the rhythm of being young in New York, what you have to compromise to live this bohemian existence one may think is so cool, but decades down the road will become stale, and she gets all the glamour and grit of what it is like to work in the food industry. Her heady descriptions of wine and dishes were as pungent as her descriptions of the backup in floor drains, and cockroaches behind the fridge.
This book did it for me--I would never make it as a waiter. Clean those dirty, sometimes urine stained floors? Me? Come on? I would rather scrub stone floors, like Jennifer Jones in "The Song Of Bernadette."
I read Danler's book with reservations. But that does not mean there aren't parts that are enjoyable.
Just try to forget Jake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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