By Jennifer Crusie.
I reviewed Crazy For You here about a year-ish ago. Crazy People is a collection of short stories that eventually inspired the book. While most of these stories aren't major factors in the book exactly, they're very entertaining reading even if you didn't read the original book.
- “The Day My Sister Shot the Mailman and Got Away With It, Of Course:” this is a funny story about how 15-year-old Quinn got the idea to set up her sister Zoe with the mailman after her boyfriend Nick went off to join the military. Naturally, this does not go well.
- “Sleep Cure:"” Kind of a strange story about a girl who's way too inhibited to be able to say anything about how her stepfather's teasing is making her feel like crap, so she starts passing out asleep whenever he starts in. It...works...but yes, it's odd.
- “Meeting Harold’s Father:" While it's a little too into "OMG I WANT A BABY NOW" territory for me to be totally comfortable with that sort of thing--I hate those "omg my ovaries are twinging" sort of conversations-- these two meeting and discussing their imaginary children is still pretty funny.
- “Necessary Skills:” This is about the character of "Barbara the Bank Slut" and goes into why she chases married men-- for the protection. And necessary skills. Not my favorite, but all right.
- "Just Wanted You To Know:” A very long letter written to a husband who just ran off with Barbara the Bank Slut. Eventually starts roaming into very interesting territory--wait till you get to the point where she discusses what's best to buy at Joann Fabrics for tying a guy up-- and then eventually gets very cheering. I enjoyed it.
- “I Am At My Sister’s Wedding:” The best one of the lot, featuring two characters who were cut out of the original novel. Caroline's sister Stephanie gets married a LOT, and this story covers her various weddings, starting from when Caroline is 15 years old. Caroline remains cynical about love even as Stephanie hops in and out of it. But towards the end, she ponders changing her tune, even if it interferes with her "daddy's girl" nature. It's a really good one.
There's also different/shorter versions of two of the stories attached, as well as versions of the book proposal.
Four stars.
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