Customer Reviews
Petulance, perhaps? - By: Joseph Haschka, 19 Jul 2008 
"... if a soup kitchen is set up in a forest & no news crews are around to see it because they alll saw THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT & they'll be damned if they're setting one foot in the woods for some stinkin' homeless people, does it count? Somehow I don't think so." - Author Sloane Crosley
I've been considering the title of Sloane Crosley's book, I WAS TOLD THERE'D BE CAKE, trying to perceive the message it sends to the potential reader. I can't quite put my finger on it. It's catchy, though; I like it.
The volume itself is a series of essays on the author's reactions to the minor injustices, unmet expectations, petty annoyances, imponderables, absurdities, & anxieties of her young life. As of today, she's still in her late twenties.
Perhaps the best chapter is the one entitled "You on a Stick", wherein she describes the experience of being chosen as the maid-of-honor by an engaged, former high school "friend" that she barely remembers. A deer caught in headlights is less inconvenienced, apparently.
Perhaps my favorite essayist that ruminates on life & the human condition is Barbara Holland (Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, & Other Indulgences, When All the World Was Young: A Memoir, Wasn't the Grass Greener). Her view of the world incorporates a certain wisdom & common sense that have evolved from several decades of living beyond what Crosley has experienced. The point I'm trying to make is that Sloane's musings, while certainly diverting & engaging, might perhaps only be taken seriously & thought profound by someone no more than thirty. She has a flair for expression, however, that, seasoned by the years to come, should result in a perception & literary talent that rivals Holland's. Thus, & perhaps unfairly, I'm awarding I WAS TOLD THERE'S BE CAKE only three stars not for what it is now but rather in comparison to the book it could become in 30-40 years.
Of course, somebody age 90, or thirty years older than I am now, may comment that this review is nonsense & I should give credit where credit is due. As a matter of fact, you're welcome to say that no matter what your age.
Returning to the mood conveyed by the title. Petulance, perhaps, or a growing sense of disappointment? I reallly do like it for its cleverness.
