Abandoned by Booklikes

I started reading this author, Charlie McDowell, more than a year ago due to the popularity of his blog and twitter about "Dear Girls Above Me." In his twitter and blog Charlie provides quotes from two female neighbors that live directly above his apartment that he can hear due to the weird layout of both apartments.

While I have always laughed at the quotes and comments Mr. McDowell writes about his female neighbors, reading through them in a book format turned into a bit of a chore for me. After I finished this memoir I decided to pass on anymore of his memoirs/books, or blogs in the future.

First and foremost Mr. McDowell in book form is not funny at all. He just seems mean spirited and nasty towards two young women. Even though he is given constant chances to do something about eavesdropping on the girls conversations he merely keeps trudging along listening in and feeling as if he is finally somebody since he now has Twitter followers who are laughing at the girls with him. Even after he meets the girls in real life and actually starts to like them he still makes fun of them when he is not outright stalking them to the grocery store.

Second, Mr. McDowell tries to tie his own personal history into this memoir but his background and how his twitter and blog of Dear Girls Above Me do not mesh well at all. Instead he goes and tells stories about his now divorced parents, Disneyland, and how he comes from a huge Hollywood acting background though he does not divulge who his parents are (a quick Google search turned up that his parents are Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell). Also he seems obsessed with his ex-girlfriend and his response to their breakup bordered on creepy. He would throw asides to their relationship and to her in the memoir and once again it did not mesh well with what he was supposed to be writing about which was the girls above him.

Third, random tweets about the Girls are just thrown in the chapters we are reading and do not make sense in the context of the story that we are reading.

Fourth, I will just flat out say it, he writes in a way that you can take away that he is prejudiced. Frankly making fun of minorities, gays, and these girls along with other women does not equal funny to me.

The only thing that this memoir has going for it, is that it moves quite fast though you are often left confused about what is he going on about now when you start a chapter.

I would not recommend this memoir.

Please note that I received this memoir via the Amazon Vine Program.