Shopgirl

Meet Mirabelle, the shopgirl who sells gloves at Neiman Marcus, and the two loves in her life--"Mr." Ray Porter, an older man who loves women, and Jeremy, a slightly lost young man who is in love with her. Through his fluid, even, relentless reading, Steve Martin tells of the dysfunctional lives of his characters and their lack of connection with each other. Martin uses highly illustrative vocabulary to reveal the psyches of men in their relationships with women. Despite Martin's flawless narration, the story never comes to life for the listener, who becomes as frantically bored as the main character. M.B.K. (c) AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine

October 9, 2000
Movie star Martin shone in the comic essays of last year's Pure Drivel--but can he write serious fiction? His debut novella gives fans a chance to find out. Shy, depressed, young, lonely and usually broke, Vermont-bred Mirabelle Butterfield sells gloves at the Beverly Hills Neiman Marcus (nobody ever buys); at night, she watches TV with her two cats. Martin's slight plot follows Mirabelle's search for love--or at least romance and companionship--with middle-aged Ray Porter, a womanizing Seattle millionaire who may, or may not, have hidden redeeming qualities. Also in and out of Mirabelle's life are a handful of supporting characters, all of them lonely and alienated, too. There's her father, a dysfunctional Vietnam vet; the laconic, unambitious Jeremy; and Mirabelle's promiscuous, body-obsessed co-worker Lisa. Detractors may call Martin's plot predictable, his characters stereotypes. Admirers may answer that--as in Douglas Coupland--these aren't stereotypes but modern archetypes, whose lives must be streamlined if they are to represent ours. Except for its love-hate relations with L.A., little about this book sounds much like Martin; its anxious, sometimes flat prose style can be affecting or disorienting, and belongs somewhere between Coupland and literary chroniclers of depression like Lydia Davis. Martin's first novel is finally neither a triumph nor a disaster: it's yet another of this intelligent performer's attempts to expand his range, and those who will buy it for the name on the cover could do a lot worse.