I Was Told There'd Be Cake | 
 enlarge | Author: Sloane Crosley
Publisher: Riverhead Trade
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $7.36
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Rating:  62 reviews
Sales Rank: 984
Media: Paperback
Pages: 240
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 159448306X
Dewey Decimal Number: 814.6
EAN: 9781594483066
Publication Date: April 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Condition: SATISFACTION GUARANTEED! NEW Book! May have remainder mark. Most orders ship within 1 BUSINESS DAY with ORDER CONFIRMATION.
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Product Description
Wry, hilarious, and profoundly genuine, this debut collection of literary essays is a celebration of fallibility and haplessness in all their glory. From despoiling an exhibit at the Natural History Museum to provoking the ire of her first boss to siccing the cops on her mysterious neighbor, Crosley can do no right despite the best of intentions-or perhaps because of them. Together, these essays create a startlingly funny and revealing portrait of a complex and utterly recognizable character that's aiming for the stars but hits the ceiling, and the inimitable city that has helped shape who she is. I Was Told There'd Be Cake introduces a strikingly original voice, chronicling the struggles and unexpected beauty of modern urban life.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 57 more reviews...
 Did her parents read this book? June 23, 2008
Frank J. Konopka (Shamokin, PA)
8 out of 12 found this review helpful
Life of a twenty-something in contemporary New York City must be a moveable feast, for there appear to be a plethora of books of non-fiction detailing all of the odd, amusing and not so amusing incidents of that way of life. I found it amazing that the author had so many different roommates, all of them male, and they almost were non-entities in the book. The incidents were chuckle-causing, and even though I'm way beyond the age of the author, I did enjoy the book very much, and perhaps with a bit of envy for a life I never led!
My new favorite author April 19, 2008
K. Huff (New York, NY)
17 out of 29 found this review helpful
I Was Told There'd Be Cake is a series of essays by sometimes-contributor to the Village Voice Sloane Crosley. There are fifteen essays total, and they cover typical twenty-something subjects, such as moving into a new walkup apartment in New York City (not as easy as it would appear), attending the wedding of every girl you knew in high school that you'd forgotten about (been there, done that), a semidysfunctional family (her family IS my family), and a satanic first boss.
Sloane Crosley tells these stories with humor and insight and she has a truly unique voice. But there were also times where I found myself thinking, "I think the same way!" Or, "I wish I'd thought of that!" It's a completely honest, open kind of storytelling, one that you don't see in many writers of today. Being a twenty-something myself, I could completely empathize with this book--made even better if you understand the cultural references (Oregon Trail, anyone?) This book is a complete gem. I'm going to recommend it to every twenty-something I know.
Too good? May 16, 2008
D. P. Birkett (Suffern, NY USA)
7 out of 12 found this review helpful
Perhaps the real Sloane Crosley is a transgendered junkie raised in foster homes by abusive religious fanatics. One never knows these days (and maybe not just these days, if you think of Daniel Defoe faking it). Anyway she writes in the persona of a young, healthy, good-looking heterosexual with Westchester parents, a New England College, and a Manhattan job. These are handicaps for the vendor of comic reminiscences, but Crosley overcomes them nobly, and was able to make me laugh out loud at several points. She makes the most of the childhood traumata of having an unusual name and being assigned the second best bedroom. Would Augusten Burroughs have managed as well with such scant material? He had it made.
I was about to conclude with commiserating her for the fact that humor is a tough competitive market, and that even the most brilliant satire ends up on the reminder tables if it ever makes print, but I see that she's in the Amazon top one hundred bestseller list. No theodicy is needed.
Very Honest Memoir from a New Young Writer! June 16, 2008
Alexandra Ottaway
2 out of 13 found this review helpful
I am very much taken with the complete honesty of Sloane Crosley's self-reflections. I am put in mind of
Marjane Satrapi's Perspolis The Complete Persepolis: Now a Major Motion Picture,
and also Barack Obama's Dreams of My Father Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance--how often do we have a document this honest and self-aware from a politician?!--
though the latter two are multi-ethnic and Crosley's is decidedly not. So I applaud all these people! I don't understand the lukewarm reviews here. Yes, culturally, these are comfortable white topics Crosley writes about, but so exceedingly well discerned, so funny and with such a new take on these old topics, I think we have to give her a break for maybe not being Mother Theresa. I love that name, Sloane, too. I don't get why she and Ben Kunkel have drawn such harsh critiques, which I ascribe partially to jealousy of bright new young writers.
Fun and entertaining read. July 9, 2008
Elizabeth Savino (Mesa, AZ USA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a great book to take on a plane or while waiting at an appointment. Her style is as absurd and humorous as Seinfeld, which is high praise in my opinion.
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