Amy Sohn Controversh, Part Deux: 'Don't Hate the Player, Smartmom, Hate The Game'

Just to recap: Park Slope rez and former sex columnist Amy Sohn wrote a book called Prospect Park West that satirizes the stroller mafia, SAHM lifestyle that's so prevalent in our neighborhood. The whole book takes place in Park Slope, and all of the typical Park Slope stereotypes (helicopter moms, sexless marriages, crazies at the Coop, etc) are served up on a silver platter like a warm plate of homemade chocolate chip cookies. And yes people, it really is that delicious. I loved the shit out of this book, but others (like Smartmom, Louise Crawford) seem to hate the crap out of it.

In fact, Smartmom hates the book so much, she recently wrote a scathing review published in the Brooklyn Paper: "Another Slope Swipe From Amy Sohn." Mind you, this was after she published a lengthy takedown of the novel on her own blog, written in a bizarre Q&A style that made it seem like she was being interviewed for the post...only she was interviewing herself. I guess she forgot that one usually tends to get interviewed after WRITING a book...not simply reading one.

Anyway.

Behold:

"So, can Park Slopers take a joke?

Absolutely.

And that’s the problem with “Prospect Park West,” Amy Sohn’s just released satiric fiction about four clichés, er, mothers, whose lives go into freefall during a long, hot summer in Park Slope.

The characters in the book are so busy being Gawker archetypes — celebrity mom, sexy bad mom, former lesbian mom, frumpy supermom — that they never take the time to laugh at themselves or make real connections with each other.

And Park Slope is about making connections. You can’t step off your stoop without having a conversation with a neighbor, a friend, a local politician or a stranger."

Hmmmm.

Ok, so she doesn't like that the CHARACTERS in this humorous, satirical work of FICTION are not realistic or representative enough of real moms in Park Slope!?

Cause that just confuses the hell out of me. I thought she could "take a joke?" I thought that fiction meant...uh, F-I-C-T-I-O-N?

For me, this outrage is almost akin to going to the Pavillion movie theater on a Friday night, laying out $20 bucks for your ticket and your mediocre popcorn, jamming your ass into the dirty, broken purple seat and then heckling the screen for 2.5 hours as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button plays. Cause 'THAT'S NOT REALLY HOW PEOPLE AGE!!!" WHAT THE FUCK!"

Oh, I'm sorry...did you think you were buying tickets to the documentary Becoming Human? Yeah, uhm....that's the one that Brad Pitt ISN'T in.

Interestingly enough, I just spent like 7 minutes googling, and Smartmom's reviews are really the only ranting, negative ones I can find. Is it all hitting a bit too close to home for SM? (even the NYT seems to think so: A Park Slope Novel Seems A Little Too Real).  I mean, it's a little hard not to connect the dots here: "the lady doth protest too much?"

I get that Smartmom and I obvs have differing opinions on the book--which is totally cool. Que sera sera. Needless to say, I love "scathing reviews" just as much as the next bitter, thirtysomething blogger. But what confuses me about this BOOK REVIEW is that its not really a review of the book (the story, the humor, the writing)--like AT all. Though Smartmom says very clearly that she can "take a joke," she then spends paragraph after paragraph proving the opposite. Her disdain for the way in which "Park Slob" moms were portrayed in Sohn's book is so overwhelmingly gripping, she can't seem to move past it.  And so instead of really reviewing the book, she's ostensibly shaking her fists in the air and practically asking out loud "WHY WEREN'T *THESE* TYPES OF MOMS PORTRAYED IN THE BOOK! WHAT ABOUT THE NORMAL, NON-HELICOPTER CARING MOMS! OR THE MOMS WITH SELF-AWARENESS? THE POLITICAL MOMS? MOMS LIKE MEEEE? WHERE WHERE THEY, AMY SOHN??"

Now, duh: Smartmom is totally entitled to rant all the live long day. And I'm SURE there is a flashmob of SAHM's at the ready, with their bugaboos and their Baby Bjorns, anxious to join forces with her to march down 7th Ave. with "Long Live Kiddie Worship" signs. But then let's just call a spade a spade: that article should have actually been called "In Defense of Park Slob Slope Moms"--and not some sham of a book review.

Because newsflash: no one wants to read a book about the type of moms referenced in Smartmom's article....cause they're totally fucking boring. Try it: write a non-fictional account of Park Slope moms and then see what happens--no one will buy that fucking book. OH wait! Except for all the people who have already shelled out the $25 for their Park Slope Parents membership and are looking for some new jerk-off material. Maybe they'd buy it.

Anyway.

Gothamist thinks that Smartmom is jealous, which I gotta admit, seems pretty right on. After doing a bit more digging, I discovered that Smartmom actually has a long and distinguished history of Amy Sohn haterade: 

"Ah, the young still-cool person. Sohn may not [sic] mommydom, but she's obsessed with our culture's preoccupation with youth and coolness. She wants to be perceived as young and cool - in spite of her baby.

How do you spell D-E-N-I-A-L ?

Doesn't the need to be cool, to be perceived as an urban hipster get annoying, too?

I'm sure a lot of people perceive me as a typical Park Slope mom. But I am so(OOOOOOOO --EMPHASIS MINE) much more detailed and interesting."

Uh...ok. My general rule is: if you have to tell me how much more "interesting" you are than everyone else, YOU'RE NOT INTERESTING AT A-L-L.

Here's some more.

I *did* however love one part of the review: the part where Smartmom points out that FIPS and our blog bff, Blognigger, are the only ones keepin' it real here in the nabe.  That part was right on the friggin money.

Here's the bottom line people: yes Prospect Park West is full of satire...and yes the characters are exaggerated, but there's also a whole hell of a lot of truth in there too--which is why, in the end, its so fucking funny. I know plenty of cool BR-ALLERS who are going to be laughing their asses through the whole damn thing.

Am I nominating the book for a Pulitzer Prize? No. But Sohn has earned herself some major BREEDER street cred with it. And since SJP optioned the book in the hopes of turning into an HBO original series, and Sohn is already working on the sequel, annnd the pilot script for the show, I think its pretty darn safe to say that "she who laughs last, laughs best."

So rock on with your badass BREEDER self, Amy.

[P.S. Go see Amy at Book Court tonight at 7pm!]