Him Her

Him Her Him Again The End of Him

by Patricia Marx

1.  What do you know about Sylvia Plath and in what ways is the narrator the same or different from her?

2.  Greg Behrendt’s He’s Just Not That Into You makes a great companion piece to this book.  Are women more obsessive about love than guys?  If they have such a strong network of gal pals to advise them, why then doesn’t it work?

3.  She seems to know herself very well.  “I sense I haven’t convinced you yet.  You know what I think it really was?  He was a narcissist.  I love narcissists – even more than they  love themselves.  You don’t have to buoy them up.  They are their own razzle-dazzle show and you are the blessed, favored with a front-row seat.” p31.  Is she always making lemondade from lemons?  and again about her obsession, “Unfortunately, the clearer it became that Eugene was not in love with me, the more convinced I became that he and I could have been just the thing.  How could I ever expect to meet someone as wonderful as Eugene?” p54.  If she’s so perceptive, at what point is she going to get it?

4.  Patricia Marx is obviously a talented comedic writer as you can see from her notes.  Here’s a particularly funny delivery of irony.  “Scarcely knew at all!  It’s funny, isn’t it, how a detail included as a reassuring fact can have the opposite effect.” p.42.  Do you like her style?  How would you classify it?  High brown, low?

5.  Oliver describes riding the train with her as ”Sisyphus on a date.”  [pg 57].  Can you explain the allusion?  And is it particularly apt?

6.  What did the narrator’s parents ever do to her to make her such a bad, disappointing child to them?  Are they just too earnest?  Is she a reflection of them at all?

7.  How effective is the ending?  Is it too short?  Or is that criticism what she would call “another story”?   Did you crave more retribution?  Or is the understated conclusion appropriate to the author’s style and purpose?