Dear Catastrophe Waitress

i love halpin's writing and the way he builds characters. this unlikely romance spends most its real estate developing two separate stories, which, in an ending that is just slightly too expected (by the time you get to it), weave into each other. still, great writing and worth reading.

I am not usually drawn to male authors, but the idea seemed interesting when reading the back cover. I loved this book. I loved Mark. he's the kind of guy that a girl would love to end up with and i loved Stacey. Phillipa was a complete mess, but Stacey was beautiful. I loved how her relationship with her daughter was not perfect, how she doubted herself, how he doubted himself, never seeing the greatness that they each possessed. It was a little predictable in some ways, but it's what readers want. It's what makes a happy ending. I highly recommend this book. If you like Nick Hornby, you'd like this, except i actually identify with this book more b/c the author seemed more intuned with a woman's mind.

What would happen if the girl who inspired the UK punk rant "Jilted John" crossed paths with the guy who Alanis Morissette's "You Oughtta Know" was directed at? That seems to be the premise at the core of Brendan Halpin's delightful novel. There aren't a lot of unpredictable surprises to be found in the trajectory which brings Halpin's characters to their inevitable meeting, but that doesn't matter. The author has such an eye for detail and skill at characterization that in a very few pages Phillipa and Mark have become people the reader cares desperately about - such fully formed human beings that it's hard to believe they are only figments of one talented writer's imagination. Even the minor characters who come and go along the way (some are only around for two or three pages, such as Phillipa's would-be stepmother and her friend Kim) are so deftly sketched that the reader comes to care about them and is saddened when they drop out of the narrative. So if the reader has a good idea how the book will end as soon as they start reading it, it's of little consequence - the journey getting there is so well written, the details so well-observed and the protagonists have become such beloved friends that there is only one ending it could or should have. I debated whether to give this book a four or five star review - on the one hand, I think five star reviews should be reserved for truly classic books like "Slaughterhouse Five" or "In Cold Blood," and not lavished on what is in all honesty a romance novel in hip punk rock clothes. But on the other hand this is the only book I have ever read cover to cover twice in the same week that I bought it. It's not earth shatteringly important, it's moderately predictable, but in terms of sheer enjoyability I loved it more than any book I've read in years. So five stars.

The Belle and Sebastian song of the same name seems to have provided the basic structure of this story of the convergence and romance of two damaged but likeable protagonists. The characters' extensive backstories are to some extent schematic (certain patterns from the past reassert themselves rather too obviously in the present), but the novel is enjoyable and absorbing, pop-literate without being obnoxious, and funny enough, with a voice that is always decent and humane.

My only complaint is that I wish the book were longer. I read it in two nights and didn't want it to be over. Halpin's characters are likeable and understandable. The book is incredibly readable. And he conveys the message that despite how hard life is, if you keep going day by day, trying to do better -- you just might!