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Fiction. Humor (Fiction.) HTML:"One should not simply read Super in the City; one should gobble it up like candy.". "Undoubtedly smarter and funnier than most girls-in-the-city novels.". "[A] funny enjoyable caper about a dirty job.... With a polished lead character, an ear for snappy dialogue and a propulsive storytelling style.". "[A] lively, smart chick-lit mystery.". Zephyr Zuckerman, the 27-year-old heroine of Uviller's debut novel, is a sexy cross between a slacker Nancy Drew and Walter Mitty. She's a hopeless romantic, a self-conscious daydreamer, and a habitual party-crasher. When the superintendent of her parents' apartment building is arrested, Zephyr becomes the new super, and chaos ensues. Emily Janice Card, daughter of author Orson Scott Card, is delightful in her narration of the novel. She interprets the text--and the author's many subtexts--with youthful energy and a furious pace that doesn't sacrifice articulateness. The book is often sexually explicit, and some listeners may find the material silly, especially during Zephyr's frequent lapses into vapid daydreaming. But Uviller's punchy style and Card's lively interpretation make this chic-lit mystery a sexy laugh-out-loud treat. S.E.S. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine. HTML:In a city brimming with opportunities for heroism, twenty-seven-year-old Zephyr Zuckerman has often fantasized about committing acts of bravery that would make front-page news. Now she may get her big break�though it may require plunging a few toilets. When the superintendent of her parents' Greenwich Village brownstone is led away in handcuffs, unemployed Zephyr takes over his post and unleashes her inner sleuth: discovering titillating secrets about her tenants�from a smoky-voiced Frenchwoman who entertains throngs of unsavory visitors to a moody musician who just has to be hiding something�and realizing that her new reality is far more intriguing than her imagination. Soon Zephyr has sussed out wrongs that stretch from losers on the Internet to art fraud and an international crime ring. The mob thinks she's in the FBI, and the FBI thinks she's in the mob�a predicament she needs to clear up fast. But perhaps not before a cute, surly exterminator helps her solve the mystery of what to do with the rest of her life.... From the Compact Disc edition..… (more)
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I was expecting the book to be more of a more mystery, but with the exception of a sub-plot involving an exotic French neighbor, the story is largely about Zephyr (and her potential boyfriend and her girlfriends and their potential boyfriends). I don't usually enjoy novels in the "chick lit" genre, but I liked this book as a bit of escapist fun. Zephyr and her friends were witty, self-deprecating, and had lives that were comprised of more than their dates and fashion choices.
The novel has pretensions toward crime
Beyond its genre-identity crisis, the novel has other balance problems. Few would expect originality in a piece with such a title, and the general lack of it here doesn't trouble me -- I'm all for Renaissance-style poetic license and I believe that a little artistic "borrowing" can make a story satisfyingly familiar -- but there are moments when the writing treads painfully near the tired and the cliche. Some of the moments are obviously deliberate (really, please be deliberate), as with the opening, which includes one hopeless gem ("Gregory.... who wound up saving me in ways I didn't even know I needed to be saved.") that is thankfully, if you will forgive me, redeemed by the words immediately following: "(I don't mean saved in a Jesus way. This is not a Jesus-saving kind of story.)" Yeah, I laughed at that too. There are some snappy, funny moments here, but there are also moments where Uviller seems to forget that the uber-cheese needs to be cut with a healthy dose of wit or sarcasm, lest the reader be injured by excessive eye-rolling.
Still, unbalanced as it is (not unlike some people I know), Uviller's debut entertains with a quick pace and a light story that, even in its awkward moments, is pretty enjoyable. I don't anticipate that this one will be heaped with literary awards, but if you are in the mood for an urban chick-lit mystery romance, you could do a lot worse.
The main character, Zephyr, is a plucky, sweet heroine who doesn't necessarily know what she wants out of life, and often feels inadequate next to her accomplished friends. With the arrest of the super in her parents' apartment building, Zephyr takes on the job and quickly learns it's not as easy as it looks.
Overall, a good read for a cold winter night!
I couldn't believe how long it took Zephyr to put the pieces together to solve the mystery swirling around her, but, the fact that she's a little ADHD and her focus is easily drawn away especially when fantasizing different scenarios, allowed me to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the ride. Really nicely done and highly recommended. Kudos!
So, in homage to Zephyr Zuckerman -- I can just see the author Daphne Uviller reading this review and thinking,
'that Dana Jean is one cool bitch. I think I'll fly her to New York City for my book party and put her up for the weekend--at the publisher's expense--and I'll personally show her around the town and we'll become BFF's forever. Or at the very least, maybe I'll send her an advanced reader's copy of my next novel.' :-)
The only draw back that I thought of while reading this, was that I would have liked to see more of her work as the super of the building. It was almost glossed over that she was the super at some parts of the story, and I had really expected to read more of how she handled her new job. Other than that, I really did enjoy this light, funny, mystery chick lit book. Worth my time.
Overall, even though this was more of a light-hearted, easy read than I usually choose, I couldn't put it down! I generally only make time to read on my commute to and from work, but I was picking this book back up every chance I got. Well worth your time if you like funny and slightly mysterious love stories!
I have to say, I didn't really enjoy this book. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't very good either. I wonder if I'm being too harsh, though. Did I expect too much and it just not meet my expectations? Was I just not in the mood for it when I was reading it? I can't say for certain. All I can say is that Super in the City didn't hold my interest and I didn't really like the characters.
The mystery within the story is interesting enough, but it seems rather offhand, as if it was added in later. Still, it's well-written and provides additional entertainment. I'd love to see a sequel to the book in which Zephyr becomes a sort of PI for hire and solves crimes. I'd definitely read that one!
My main character problem was with Zephyr; I felt like she had no direction. She seemed to have the maturity level of a much younger child. She couldn't commit to anything in life because she seemed to want to do everything. While this enthusiasm is understandable in a younger adult, it is difficult to accept that a 27-year-old refuses to do anything with her life because she can't do everything. It seems immature and tantamout to some sort of tantrum - "If I can't do everything I wanna do, I'm not going to do anything!"
Like I said before, I don't know if I'm being overly critical and I feel bad because it definitely wasn't a bad book. It just definitely left something to be desired and didn't really hold my interest. The idea was extremely promising and I hope that Ulliver follows up on the threads she left dangling at the end of Super in the City. Though this novel wasn't for me, I would be more than willing to give any of her future books a chance.
The main character, Zephyr, is immature and vacuous.
I think this book could have focused more on her responsibilities as a super and the interesting tenants in her building without having to resort to a "Nancy Drew" whodunit plotline.
This mystery/chick-lit novel boasts a unique plot and an array of characters that seem to fit certain stereotypes, but then end up surprising the reader again and again. The romantic in my squealed in delight over the $10 scene at the court house (but I'll say no more about that), and the mysterious happenings in the brownstone held my attention far more firmly than I ever expected. I look forward to reading more of Uviller's work in the future!