Real Women, developed characters, interesting plot, make a good read.
"It’s so difficult in the post post modern genre to find characters with whom one wishes to spend any amount of time. It is almost as if Thomas Pynchon’s anti-heroes have taken over all modern drama. How refreshing then to find three main characters with whom a reader would gladly spend 30 chapters.
In an era of “Me too,” how wonderful to read about real women, facing real challenges, in a real NY. Nice to see gals who actually think, rather than just get their butts grabbed and cry about it on Twitter.
The City as we knew it, not that long ago, is in and of itself a character. I don’t know any anyone who lives here that doesn’t long for the day when one could still GET an apartment for under $3,000. When there weren’t Chase Banks on every corner. When you could still buy a bag of smack on Avenue D & 4th Street.
This novel doesn’t suffer from the “Ernest Hemingway” curse: an author who can’t create deep characters of the opposite gender. Danny and Pest are completely 4 dimensional. I even liked them. I was always taught that a man is only worth what a man is worth. Danny is so much more than whatever money he can earn. He is Nati’s rock. He is Ziz, sweet- like honey.
And Pest is a product of his past, from which he can’t seem to free himself, at least in this installment.
In an era of graphic sex, I was pleased to see the tasteful “cowboy boots under the bed” treatment, modified for the 20-teens.
Don’t Poke the Bear is Virginia Wolfe meets JayMcInerney with some Marilyn French thrown in. I would say Didion, but blessedly, Bear isn’t dark. The ending isn’t “all’s well that end well,” but there were no murders, abortions or horrific S & M scenes. There is hope, at the end, the the characters will successfully avoid the mean people who make them unhappy, and grab the goodness to be found everywhere in the big city. "
