Rosten, Carrie (2005). Chloe Lieberman (Sometimes Wong). NY: Delacorte Press. ISBN: 0385732473. 224 pages.
Chloe Wong-Lieberman is fashion obsessed to the point that she believes she might have a legitimate psychiatric disorder; wherever she goes, she mentally "re-styles" passersby and sometimes can't help blurting out what she perceives to be crimes of fashion. Needless to say, Chloe must expend so much mental energy to supress the urge to make fashion suggestions to the style impaired, she has little left to study or make what her parents would consider to be a legitimate plan for her post high school future. She does, however, find time to design and sew her own creations and dreams of attending fashion college in London. While this seems like a decent chick-lit set up, Rosten's delivery is piss poor. Told in the third person, the exegetic narrator supplies no extra information save a snarky and random voice and gives us little insight into Chloe's mind outside of her hyperbolic characterization as a true fashion mavin. Much is made of Chloe's Jewish-Chinese heritage and Rosten includes a glossary of Mandarin and Yiddish words that appear in the text (organized in order of appearance, not alphabetically, which is annoying); however, any clash of cultures discussion is ignored in favor of random insertions of "foreign" words meant to convey the complexity of Chloe's situation. Oh, this book was soooo lame (and I LIKE chick-lit!). Bonus lameness: in Rosten's author bio, she establishes author "cred" by name dropping her famous dad (Leo Rosten) and more famous grand-pop (William Steig). Obviously, authorial talent doesn't run in the family. |
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