The Makedown

Gitty Daneshvari
5 Spot (2009)
ISBN 9780446699884
Reviewed by Carol Hoyer, PhD, for Reader Views (3/09)

I had such a great time reading this book. It was funny, sad and very entertaining. How many times have we known someone who didn’t fit in and everyone made fun of them? How about if it was you?

Anna Norton never did fit in- she was fat, a nerd and had no social skills. She tried to have periodic romances but they never lasted. After moving to New York to get away from it all- she realizes that people are the same everywhere. When she can’t land a job she goes to a temp agency that gives her what they call “the boss no one wants to work for.” However, her boss, a caterer is the person that helps and cares for her the most.

Through much work, tears and humiliation, Anna becomes a new person; not only in appearance but inside as well. She sets her goal on an attractive lawyer who has a lot of money and dates skinny women. Changing the outside doesn’t do much good if you don’t change the insides and Anna was still that little girl who was insecure.

Being fed up with all the skinny women making hits on her man, Anna decides to take matters in her own hand. Disaster strikes and you will have to read this to find out what happens.

As a psychologist reading “The Makedown,” I thought – boy, does this hit home for so many people? Ms. Daneshvari has put into words what many think. Her easy-to-read and relate to book is a gem to read. It’s almost as if she was in your life- the reader could be any character in this book.  Her vivid descriptions and conversations of her characters put you right in the book with them.

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