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A review by ruthie
Craigslist Confessional: A Collection of Secrets from Anonymous Strangers by Helena Dea Bala
3.0
when I first started this book - a series of anonymous confessionals of everyday people's lives - I was surprised by how low the average rating was, but by the halfway point I definitely understood where it was coming from.
what starts as moving confessions from everyday people about their lives turned into something trite, often cliche, and rather unbelievable. I'd like to give the author the benefit of the doubt that she didn't just make all these stories up for clout, but after a while it felt like the same shit over and over again, with a few details changed here or there. I should have tracked how many people's stories involved cheating because it felt out of hand. I mean obviously I know people cheat, but really? that many?
I also started to get a weird feeling about the direction these stories went in. it felt like in nearly every story - whether the person was male or female - the woman was at fault. either she was the one cheating, the one wanting the divorce, the alcoholic one, or she was neglectful/not what the husband needed and led the husband to cheat. like... the amount of times the person's "problem" in life was the woman's fault (or perceived to be her fault) felt Very suspect, and I didn't like it.
I also think a lot was lost in the format in which these stories were told. the author says that she took notes on pen and paper, and did not take direct quotes unless a sentence seemed particularly profound, and I think that was a huge mistake. most of the way the book is written is not in any kind of style we would speak in as, like, real human beings. it made it feel all the more fictional, on top of the stories feeling biased and often unrealistic.
that's not to say nothing ever struck a chord with me. it's been like five days since I've finished this as I'm writing the review, and most of the stories have escaped me by this point but there's a few I remember clearly. the woman whose child had a heart defect, and wasn't expected to live - but is now perfectly healthy and well into adulthood - was a moving one, particularly as I work with moms whose babies have all kinds of serious medical conditions; and the story of the man whose wife has dementia brought me to tears. many of the stories were honestly interesting, and I wouldn't say not to pick this up; there's a decent chance you'll actually enjoy it. the skeptic in me just had a few too many questions to be able to blindly enjoy myself.
what starts as moving confessions from everyday people about their lives turned into something trite, often cliche, and rather unbelievable. I'd like to give the author the benefit of the doubt that she didn't just make all these stories up for clout, but after a while it felt like the same shit over and over again, with a few details changed here or there. I should have tracked how many people's stories involved cheating because it felt out of hand. I mean obviously I know people cheat, but really? that many?
I also started to get a weird feeling about the direction these stories went in. it felt like in nearly every story - whether the person was male or female - the woman was at fault. either she was the one cheating, the one wanting the divorce, the alcoholic one, or she was neglectful/not what the husband needed and led the husband to cheat. like... the amount of times the person's "problem" in life was the woman's fault (or perceived to be her fault) felt Very suspect, and I didn't like it.
I also think a lot was lost in the format in which these stories were told. the author says that she took notes on pen and paper, and did not take direct quotes unless a sentence seemed particularly profound, and I think that was a huge mistake. most of the way the book is written is not in any kind of style we would speak in as, like, real human beings. it made it feel all the more fictional, on top of the stories feeling biased and often unrealistic.
that's not to say nothing ever struck a chord with me. it's been like five days since I've finished this as I'm writing the review, and most of the stories have escaped me by this point but there's a few I remember clearly. the woman whose child had a heart defect, and wasn't expected to live - but is now perfectly healthy and well into adulthood - was a moving one, particularly as I work with moms whose babies have all kinds of serious medical conditions; and the story of the man whose wife has dementia brought me to tears. many of the stories were honestly interesting, and I wouldn't say not to pick this up; there's a decent chance you'll actually enjoy it. the skeptic in me just had a few too many questions to be able to blindly enjoy myself.