Falling Into Manholes

BOOK: Falling Into Manholes: The Memoir of a Bad/Good Girl
AUTHOR: Wendy Merrill

GRADE: D

You know that friend you have with whom it takes every ounce of willpower not to strangle every time she cries over doing the exact same thing she was crying over last week, and the week before, and the week before that? We all have one (hopefully, no more than that) and Wendy Merrill is that girl. What promises to be a humorous jaunt through the sad/ridiculous/strange dating world, turns out to be no more than self occupied navel gazing. Merrill recovers from a variety of addictions, but it’s hard to properly appreciate her accomplishments when every other chapter is another tale of woe over mommy/daddy issues and their projection on to the poor men she traps in her insanity. I had a terribly difficult time rooting for Ms. Merrill by the end because I was simply sick of her and grateful to be finished with the book. I don’t pen bad reviews often (it goes against my people pleasing quirk), but I’m at a serious loss to come up with praise for this work.