You Have to Kiss a Lot of Frogs by Laurie Graff NEW

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From Publishers Weekly
Disguised as yet another chick-lit novel about disastrous dating, this book moves beyond genre constraints to offer a provocative and intelligent look at the ways that people search for a meaningful life. Cleverly titled chapters such as "Weight Listed" and "A Clue in Time Saves Nine" describe actress Karrie Kline's dating adventures, but there's a continuity in her narration that makes this novel more than the sum of its parts. Several themes recur throughout, including Karrie's admiration for her mother and stepfather's marriage and her relationship to Judaism, and though romance may come hard to Karrie, her love for New York City is constant, even when she briefly expatriates to Los Angeles. While Karrie's dates are truly hilarious-like the man who wears the same outfit every day, and the man who barks like a dog to show affection-there's also a sense of poignancy as Kerrie truly attempts to give each man his due. Her dates wind through the decades, tracing history as they do, and what's left when the laughter dies down is a normal woman looking for a normal type of happiness, but one who passes by her lucky break like a ship in the night. Those expecting a light and fluffy confection will likely be pleasantly surprised by this more substantive fare.
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From Booklist
Graff's debut novel opens at a bridal shower. Karrie Klein, 45, has never been married, and she is attending her umpteenth bridal shower for yet another friend who's found the mythical "one." This leads Karrie to reminisce about her own dating history, starting in 1988 and covering 15 years of losers, freaks, oddballs, and just downright insensitive and selfish guys. Her boyfriend at 30, David, introduces her to his parents, who love her, apparently more than David does. Jack, a born-again Christian, seems like such a bad match from the outset that Karrie muses, "It would have been easier to not have the relationship and to have just sold the movie rights." As she struggles in the New York dating world, she also struggles to make it as an actress. More than just a catalogue of loser guys and bad relationships, Graff's smart and funny novel shows just how hard finding the right man can be and how easy it is for a relationship to fail. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

448 Pages