I think I'd say that I liked this book more than I enjoyed it. I found the characters and their relationships intriguing and I loved the descriptions of the working-class towns in the English Midlands of the 1900's. Still, the prose style made things kind of difficult for me--I had a particularly hard time keeping up with the changes in perspective and the passage of time. All in all, though, I can see why this is the sort of book that is so often taught in lit classes and I'm glad I read it.

Started: 3/26/2007 | Finished: 6/3/2007

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I think I like Judd Apatow's movie sensibilities. I was realizing as I sat down to write this review that a lot of the things I liked about Knocked Up were also things I liked about his previous film, The 40 Year Old Virgin. Both films somehow managed to combine raunchy humor with genuine emotion in a way that, miraculously, works very well. I was laughing really hard for a lot of the movie and yet I still found myself really caring about the relationship between the two main characters. I liked pretty much the entire cast. The closest I came to having a complaint was with Katherine Heigl, and that wasn't so much because she was miscast or did a bad job as just that I found it the slightest bit jarring to see her in this kind of movie when I'm so used to seeing her in Grey's Anatomy. The one warning I'd put out there is that there are a few shock scenes that are about as gratuitous as anything I've ever seen in a comedy, so just be aware that you might see a few things you'd rather not. Still, if you liked The 40 Year Old Virgin, you'll like this one.

Viewed: 5/31/2007 | Released: 5/31/2007 | Score: A

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