Customer Reviews
Growing up in the USA - By: Damaskcat, 23 Sep 2008 
I was attracted to this book by its title. I think it probably misled me. I took it with me on a train journey & after the first couple of essays I was just a shade bored with it. I considered buying something else & abandoning it when I changed trains, but I persevered & things did improve. The author's description of volunteering at the Natural History Museumin New York & showing people round the butterfly area is a gem as are the essays on being asked unexpectedly to be a maid of honour to an old high school friend she hardly remembers. It's a shame you have to wade through several essays which I can only describe as dross to get to the few gold nuggets. If I'd been at home I would have abandoned this after the first 30 pages so I would have missed the gems - but there aren't enough for me to award it five stars. Part of the problem was my unfamiliarity with many of the American brand names & customs mentioned so I missed some of the humour. Allin all it was probably worth reading - but skip the essays you get bored with you won't be missing too much.
Disappointing - By: Man in Paris, 20 Aug 2008 
I bought this following Nicholas Lezard's rave reviewin the Guardian & have to admit to being underwhelmed. She has a nice voice & can write well, but the stories are too often boring & inconsequential & she isn't funny enough. David Sedaris does this sort of thing a billion times better.
Dull , dull , dull - By: M. Bourke, 13 Aug 2008 The blurb on the front suggests that Ms crosley is the female David Sedaris .She most certainly is not . The stories are dull & unfunny .
I was left feeling underwhelmed .
in one word "meh"
Petulance, perhaps? - By: Joseph Haschka, 19 Jul 2008 "... if a soup kitchen is set upin a forest & no news crews are around to see it because they all saw THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT & they'll be damned if they're setting one footin the woods for some stinkin' homeless people, does it count? Somehow I don't think so." - Author Sloane Crosley
I've been considering the title of Sloane Crosley's book, I WAS TOLD THERE'D BE CAKE, trying to perceive the message it sends to the potential reader. I can't quite put my finger on it. It's catchy, though; I like it.
The volume itself is a series of essays on the author's reactions to the minor injustices, unmet expectations, petty annoyances, imponderables, absurdities, & anxieties of her young life. As of today, she's stillin her late twenties.
Perhaps the best chapter is the one entitled "You on a Stick", wherein she describes the experience of being chosen as the maid-of-honor by an engaged, former high school "friend" that she barely remembers. A deer caughtin headlights is less inconvenienced, apparently.
Perhaps my favorite essayist that ruminates on life & the human condition is Barbara Holland (Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, & Other Indulgences, When All the World Was Young: A Memoir, Wasn't the Grass Greener). Her view of the world incorporates a certain wisdom & common sense that have evolved from several decades of living beyond what Crosley has experienced. The point I'm trying to make is that Sloane's musings, while certainly diverting & engaging, might perhaps only be taken seriously & thought profound by someone no more than thirty. She has a flair for expression, however, that, seasoned by the years to come, should resultin a perception & literary talent that rivals Holland's. Thus, & perhaps unfairly, I'm awarding I WAS TOLD THERE'S BE CAKE only three stars not for what it is now but ratherin comparison to the book it could becomein 30-40 years.
Of course, somebody age 90, or thirty years older than I am now, may comment that this review is nonsense & I should give credit where credit is due. As a matter of fact, you're welcome to say that no matter what your age.
Returning to the mood conveyed by the title. Petulance, perhaps, or a growing sense of disappointment? I really do like it for its cleverness.
