Girl Walks into a Bar: A Memoir

by Strawberry Saroyan

Book Overview

From the glittering skyscrapers of Manhattan's media elite to the slacker haven of a fashionably low-rent L.A. bar, Strawberry Saroyan traces her journey from girl- to womanhood, as well as from fantasy to reality. A powerful and profoundly postmodern coming-of-age story, with a voice reminiscent of Liz Phair's one moment and Mary McCarthy's the next, Girl Walks into a Bar explores Saroyan's struggle not only with who she is and who she wants to be...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 037550611X
• ISBN13: 9780375506116
• Release Date: July 2003
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.6" x 0.8" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

I loved this book

I normally don't write reviews but just had to when I saw all the negative feedback below. As a 25-year-old, single New Yorker working in the publishing world - I thought this book was dead on with my experiences, fears, thoughts and everything else going on in my life. I don't think the author was trying to make people feel sorry for her (as one reviewer suggested) but rather being very honest about the thoughts in her head. I thought the author described perfectly how the choices and freedom that women have today in terms of career can sometimes be a curse instead of a blessing. I would reccomend this book to anyone who is figuring out what they want to do with their life beacuse if nothing else, it makes you feel like you are not alone.

A Memoir Of Urbane Maturity

Strawberry Saroyan has written a memoir that tells a universal story -- one's coming to maturity -- within an extraordinary context. What makes this book significant is the fact that the author is the grandaughter of a legitimate, do-something celebrity -- author William Saroyan -- and she herself worked as a staff writer for some of the most high-profile print media in New York and California.Few people can claim to have played out their roaring twenties on Strawberry Saroyan's level, yet there are many who did work for a Pittsburgh Magazine, or a Centre Daily Times, and who had their own memorable "Thursday Night" gatherings of like-minded friends. This book is for them -- those who aspire to actively participate in the culture of the urban American experience.Saroyan uses a cool prose style: crisp sentences and succinct descriptions. One can imagine the author telling this tale during an evening's conversation over a bottle of red wine. At the end of the night, the reader feels that one of her (or his) own have made good, and have done so by writing a book that entertains and advises without asking for anything but a sympathetic ear and an open mind.

If you ate breakfast at Tiffany's today...

This is a slim volume, but it's not a lightweight book. I read it very quickly, and its mood has stayed with me. I found it to be an original, thoughtful, and moving meditation on success, fame, ambition, and the mental landscape of the Conde Nast glamoursphere. I think Saroyan deserves credit for pointing out and exploring the close connection between identity and career success for young women today. My only criticism of the book is its many distracting paranthetical phrases.

Written for Parents

I'm a third of the way through this book, and I'm much more sympathetic towards young girls trying to make sense of where they want to go, who they want to be, and so on. It's frightening making career choices. It's horrible to realize you're getting close to what you wanted, only to have a creeping suspicion that it's not what it's cracked up to be.This is not destined to be a great classic, but it goes a long way in helping the parents of smart girls who should seamlessly slide into "a life," that it ain't that easy. It was so much easier for a 1967 graduate!

Poorly written but...

I devoured this book in a weekend. It's rambling, repetitive, and vague, but it reads like an emotional letter from a friend. Although the book needed better editing, the author has captured what it is like to grow up as a woman today. I related to so many of her experiences: the disappointment in a career path, the moves across country, the lack of family support, the unsatisfying and flaky romances, the lost friendship, the search for a social group, the men who never grow up. I especially liked the section on the Bounty boys, a group of men the author hung out with for a time in L.A. It's not all bad news, as she does find a satisfactory group of friends to hang out with, but it does end with a lot of questions still unanswered. For women who weathered a lot of turmoil in their twenties to find themselves on firmer ground but still searching in their thirties, this is a good read. I think the subject matter could have been handled with more insight by a better writer, but I think Saroyan deserves credit for attempting this chronicle of the modern woman's experience.