BiblioAddict

On why there’s no cake when you expect it, looking for genuine insight, and getting tattooed for life:

Sloane Crosley is being hailed by many (and certainly by her publicist) as a young, female version of David Sedaris.  Or, maybe even a younger, hipper version of Sarah Vowell.  But while Slaone Crosley’s I Was Told There’d Be Cake is certainly funny in parts, I think the comparisons just might be a little generous.

The paragraph on the back of the book reads, “In a sharp, original storytelling style that confounds expectations at every turn, Crosley recounts her victories and catastrophes with an irresistible voice that is all her own, finding genuine insights in the most unpredictable places.”  The only problem I have with that sentence is the last part about “genuine insights,” because that’s the problem with many of the essays and, by extension, the book as a whole: the experiences Crosley recounts are interesting and quirky and even funny, but they aren’t insightful.

The thing about reading David Sedaris, especially nowadays, is that besides being funny he comments on a broader aspect of life or relationships.  Crosley’s essays on the other hand, seem almost superficial by comparison, scratching only at the surface for a good laugh but not really going much deeper than that.  Normally I wouldn’t compare such as an accomplished writer to one who’s just getting her start, but virtually everyone else has to her favor, which is part of the reason why I picked up IWTTBC in the first place.

What’s funny is that, as someone in her mid- to late-20s, I was probably the target audience for IWTTBC as Crosley is only a couple of years older than myself.  And I could definitely relate to some of her experiences.  For instance, the day her friends started dropping like flies to marriage:

… one day I woke up in my mid-twenties and boom: I was attending [a wedding] every three months.  It was an epidemic and I was invited.

Also to how, eight years after high school she began to consciously loose some of the names of friends and teachers she  hadn’t seen or spoken to since graduation:

There’s a natural Darwinism of the brain that forces most people to let go of high school.  We need our paltry three percent storage space for contemporary information like the location of car keys.  This is why childhood phone numbers sneak away like socks in a dryer.  It’s why the names of once beloved teachers get whittled down to the vibe of a single letter. (See: It starts with an L. L something…)  …. And if any set of memories has a bull’s-eye on its back, it’s those from the four years leading up to the senior prom.  We lose or, worse, we manipulate our memories of this time.  It is my belief that people who speak of high school with a sugary fondness are bluffing away early-onset Alzheimer’s.

And to her thoughts on getting married:

I have never pictured my own wedding.  I do want to get married.  It’s a nice idea.  Though I think husbands are like tattoos – you should wait until you come across something you want on your body for the rest of your life instead of just wandering into a tattoo parlor on some idle Sunday and saying, “I feel like I should have one of theses suckers by now.  I’ll take a thorny rose and ‘MOM’ anchor, please.  No, not that one – the big one.”

But, besides all of that I found myself wanting more.  What do all these crazy experiences as a 20 year old mean?  Being a twenty year old these days is such a crazy time that doesn’t get talked about very often.  A whole lot of uncertainty comes with the baggage of being a young adult.  Especially when you cross that half-way line to 30 and start thinking of all the things you won’t have accomplished by the time you get there.

I wish Crosley had dug a little deeper into these problems and experiences instead of relating a semi-humorous story of the time she got locked out of her old and new apartment in the same day.  Or, rather tell that story and dig a little deeper.  Keep the funny, but add a little of that “genuine insight.”

I Was Told There’d Be Cake wasn’t a bad book.  In fact, it was plain entertaining at times.  It’s just that IWTTBC reads like what it is: a debut collection of essays.  Crosely definitely has talent and I think she’ll get better over time.  If she really is a female version of David Sedaris, then I know she will.

I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
Riverhead Books / April 2008
$14.00 / 230 pps.