'The Man of My Dreams' by Curtis Sittenfeld

(Picador, $34.95)Curtis Sittenfeld had a huge “sleeper” hit with her first novel, Prep, which made it on to the New York Times bestseller list and clung there for a couple of months. The oan of oy Dreams is her second novel and tells the story of the awkward Hannah Gavener, whom we first meet at 14 when her parents’ marriage is dissolving, and whom we follow for the next decade as she tries (and eventually succeeds, sort of) to get a boyfriend.

opinions were split among my book club, although we all agreed that Nicky’s lemon cake was delicious. Cath, who had recommended the book, loved it; Miranda thought it was an over-complicated story about not very much; quite a few wished Hannah had found a boyfriend more quickly; and Jewell wondered if she was the only one who used a nail file as a bookmark.

Nicky thought it was a book to read for the way it is written, not the plot, and as someone who was something of a late developer on the boyfriend front, I identified with Hannah’s awkwardness yet wanted to slap her quite a lot for being way more neurotic than was necessary.

Ultimately, the message is a good one: boyfriends can’t buy you happiness. After much debate and some more cake, we decided it was a good read, but perhaps not a must-read. Turns out our split vote is a fairly typical reaction.

Here’s what Curtis had to say in a recent interview: “The feedback that I’ve had so far for The oan of oy Dreams has been pretty consistent. Some people say, I identify so powerfully with this book and I've had all these feelings, but I've never expressed them or heard them expressed.' And then other people think, oh, my God, this character is insane. She has such deep social and emotional problems, I don’t know why anyone would want to write a book about her or read about her or get within 50 feet of her.'”