The Things I’ve Learned from Women Who Dumped Me

Ben Karlin
Grand Central Publishing (2009)
ISBN 9780446699464
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (2/09)


Perhaps I am a little jaded, but I have to admit, when I first saw the title, I expected it to be one of those books that you open up to discover all the pages are blank.  Maybe I am a little more than jaded, because when you dump someone, especially if they weren’t treating you well, you really, really, want them to have learned something.  Well, this isn’t that type of book.  I can honestly say that no one that I have ever dumped remotely resembled any of the authors in this anthology.
           
I found each story to carry its own individual stamp. This made it more enjoyable for me to read. Each person had their own story to tell.  Some were about unrequited first loves from their school days and others were more about their recent experiences.   Even though there was a lot of humor in these pages, I also found touches of nostalgia and lessons learned.  I really appreciated that the author included a story written by someone, who as a young man was trying to deal with his homosexuality by pretending to be heterosexual. 

Self-disclosure is evident in these pages. Being that some of the authors are well known today, I appreciated that they were willing to share as much as they did.  I also liked that many of the authors are now in happy relationships, mostly with wives, and that they moved on from their former relationships.  Both men and women will enjoy these stories.   In addition to enjoying what each author shared, or sometimes cringing along with them, their experiences show that there are a lot more similarities between men and women in regards to relationships than I realized.  We are similar in that we sometimes try to hang on longer than we should, and in that what we might remember about a relationship, might not be like what are exes remember - if they remember us at all!
           
If you are interested in an enjoyable book that will teach you something about relationships, “The Things I’ve Learned from Women Who Dumped Me” by Ben Karlin is the one for you. If you know someone that just got dumped, this would make the perfect gift for him.  Perhaps you could even give it to your ex…

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