The Late Bloomer's Revolution

April 2, 2007
Cohen's memoir starts with an amusing anecdote about traveling to Prague with her mother, who seems cheerfully oblivious to the fact that the handsome young man who joins them for dinner is far more interested in her than her daughter. Unfortunately, Cohen's mother is dying of a brain tumor by the end of the chapter, and though the endless kibitzing of her father, who tries to fix Cohen's love life while dating a string of "older widows and comely divorcees," is entertaining, the other members of her inner circle pale in comparison. Like Candace Bushnell, Cohen was a dating columnist for the New York Observer
, with stories that drew liberally upon her friends' experiences and commentaries—and it's hard not to compare characters like John the TV journalist or George the rock star to "Mr. Big." Cohen's misadventures have a much deeper masochistic streak than Sex and the City
, even if she copes with setbacks like a virulent face rash with as much self-deprecating humor as she can muster. If the results fail to overturn Bushnell's legacy as the reigning observer of Manhattan dating life, they make for a perfectly acceptable substitute.