Why Girls Are Weird

When I arrived to the airport for a recent trip, there were posted signs that my flight had an hour and a half delay. Being that my actual travel time was just over an hour, I hadn't properly prepared myself with adequate reading material - so off to the bookstore I went. I immediately picked up The Russian Debutante's Handbook which I've wanted to read for a while now, and kept adding random books to my pile, then putting them back. And as much as I hate 'chicklit,' I kept reading the book descriptions of such ilk until I got ill. There was this one book though, with a bright orange colour and a funky chick with a cat on the cover, that wasn't nestled in the middle of the formulaic, eye-rolling novels. I finally picked it up and read the back:

When Anna Koval [teaches] herself HTML and [posts] partially fabricated stories about her life on the Internet, she hardly imagines anyone besides her friend Dale is going to read them. Almost instantly Anna K starts getting e-mail from adoring fans that read her daily postings religiously.

I thought, "Hey, I write for a site that was started for fun and we're always surprised that people we don't know [read: friends we don't harass to visit PopGurls] read and recommend us." I didn't even bother reading the first few pages, so the opening piece about Barbies and their sexual awakenings as interpreted by young girls was a complete surprise. Feet up, slouched down in the waiting area, I made embarrassing snorting noises from laughing so hard.

It was then that I flipped to the back to read more about the author and for the first time I realized that Pamela Ribon was Pamie, of pamie.com fame. While I've followed many a LiveJournal link to her pieces, and had read about the great success she had in getting people to donate books to the Oakland Public Library, I'm the first to admit that I'm not a regular reader. So I read further into the book with no expectations, and no assumptions.

I absolutely loved Why Girls are Weird. I loved it so much that I didn't even notice that the plane was delayed two more hours while I was reading. I loved it so much that once it was delayed another hour and I decided to play the daddy card and have him come get me, I thought about the book on the entire ride back to his house.

Anna is such a real and well-rounded character that she felt like someone I'd be friends with. She trades quips with her gay best friend, Dale, and wonders if she's still content to go on in her established family role. She's still dealing with the breakup of a relationship, still hanging onto the memories and romanticizing the past far longer than she should (than most of us should). And she struggles with the unease of life instability - the daily feeling of "what am I going to do with my life?"

To quote Homer Simpson, a lot of the book is 'funny because it's true.' Why Girls Are Weird is the best example I've seen of incorporating online relationships into another media. As I read, I found myself wanting to rush out and buy copies for all my friends - especially those who have established any sort of online presence. Whereas some authors throw in online references to make themselves look hip and cool, Ribon incorporates it in such a way that it's obvious she is writing about a world in which she is deeply entrenched, a world that she loves. Of course, a lot of that comes from running pamie.com, and the email banter between Anna and LDobler (whose fan mail soon develops into a friendship) rings true for anyone who has friends that depend on online communication. As Anna writes about her life, as it turns from funny to somber, she realizes, like many have, that she is closer in some ways to people she's never met than her "real life" friends.

In an interview, Ribon denied that her book wasn't chick lit, but I disagree. With the handful I've read (the last being the I-hated-it-so-much-I-want-to-sue-for-my-money-and-hours-back Good in Bed), they all follow the formula "heavy girl (with sexy, tiny friend), wants boy, fails at something she wants, sleeps with wrong boy, mopes then loses weight and gets boy and has perfect romance with starshine and ponies." Why Girls are Weird never feels formulaic and never stoops to the "if only I weighed less, my life would be amazing" level. There's some pretty darn amusing entries involving Anna's attempts at an exercise regimen, but it's not treated as the archway to life fulfillment. And while the book chronicles the flirtations and relationship of Anna and LDobler, Ribon clearly makes the point that while they may get to ride ponies down a starlit path, there are some rocks and boulders they're going to have to cross as they travel.

My quibbles with the book are few - Dale's storyline tied up too quickly, too neatly and quite improbably. The pop culture references are great, but at times they are heavily relied upon which can lose someone who is unaware of the connection. And finally, there's my own personal issue with so many novels having an early-twenties protagonist who suddenly hits twenty-five and their life finally clicks into place. (At 28, soon to be 29, and nowhere near feeling that click, I fully acknowledge that I'm a bit bitter.)

So run out to get the book. I've read it twice now and look forward to reading it again. And I'll be reading pamie.com in great anticipation of Ribon's next novel.

Read our interview with Pamela here

2003-08-14