First, the title is misleading. It's more about hunting and fishing for husbands as opposed to the more literal meaning. The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, said to be the first "chick lit" novel, is really a series of essays focusing on a character named Jane Rosenal as she navigates her way through childhood, adolescence, and later adulthood.
There are great lapses in time between the stories, and they're not all put in chronological order, which makes me think that the stories are ordered according to some common theme--though I never really figured out what that theme was. I mean, I get that the book is about dating, but it was really confusing to be in a lot of ways. In addition, Jane's relationship with the much older editor was a little bit disconcerting to me. Also, there was one story that seemed really out of place: I got the impression that it was told from Jane's point of view after she'd had children and they'd grown up. But I couldn't figure out how that story fit into the general course of the book.
The title of the book comes from a story placed at the end of the book, where Jane begins to date a guy she meets at a wedding. Se's so caught up in playing the dating "game by "The Rules," that she doesn't allow the guy to see who she really is. The book is well written, but there's a lot which didn't make sense to me and there didn't seem to be a "plot," so to speak.
Also reviewed by: Between the Covers
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