Product Description

Marriage fit Stephanie Klein like a glove . . . but unfortunately it fit her husband like a noose. She thought she had the perfect marriage, but just like that, Klein found herself "divorced when you're firm, fashionable, and let's face it—fetching."

Celebrated bloggist, photographer, and freelance writer Stephanie Klein lets it all hang out in this juicy tell-all tracing her jump back into single life following her divorce. On the dating advice of her therapist, Klein attempts to keep "a pair and a spare" of men always at hand and has lots of bawdy fun along the way. But when the anniversary of the devastating breakup from her "wasband" forces her to revisit what happened, she finds herself wanting more than her therapist's recommended gimmick to keep her emotionally safe.

Straight Up and Dirty demonstrates that the true measure of success isn't what's crossed off life's to-do list. It's having the grace and fortitude to move through change, curls intact and smiling.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #344616 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-01
• Released on: 2006-07-25
• Format: Bargain Price
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
One month after discovering her husband was having an affair, 20-something Klein made him her "Wasbund" and started trying to find a man to date again-or better, a "pair and a spare," as her telephone therapist advised. She "rodated" desperately, searching for someone to repair her wounded ego. She even found a reasonably suitable boyfriend-only she broke it off when he suggested living together. At one point she faced the truth she'd avoided from the beginning, that she had to learn to appreciate herself for her own accomplishments before she could have a healthy relationship with a man. While there's nothing new about that story line-indeed, it's curiously proto-feminist for a recent Barnard grad-Klein's sense of humor is downright wicked. Her ex-mother-in-law was a "shrub of a woman" who "sounded like she'd swallowed a southerner" and looked "like a transvestite who had a one-night stand with a disco ball." Then there's "Mr. Madras Pants," who "carried a degree in poplin with a minor in seersucker... the type of man who was at complete ease when sending his order back to the kitchen." In the end, Klein's is a great, fun read.
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Review
"Stephanie Klein is so gut-wrenchingly honest that it's embarrassingly entertaining to read her oh-so-real stories, even if you haven't experienced what she's gone through--from divorce to hating tuna fish to attending weddings alone ("Something to really look forward to, you know, like a Pap smear")." (Jane )

"Klein's sense of humor is downright wicked.a great, fun read." (Publishers Weekly )

"Stephanie Klein's raw account of divorce at age 29 is refreshingly honest and funny, without delving into cheesy chick-lit territory. You'll easily relate to Klein-even if you don't have a "wasband." (Marie Claire )

"Fearless. . . . Her adventures take her from Soho to the Hamptons-looking for love, with a cocktail in her hand." (The Independent )

"Beneath the wisecracking tales of solo supermarket shopping, phone therapy and Hamptons houseshares, the raw emotion about her divorce and nightmare mother-in-law rings true. Plus, any girl who can pen such gems as, 'I wanted to verb his noun', deserves respect. (Marie Claire (UK) )

"Nothing, it seems, is too private not to share with . . . Ms. Klein's legions of followers. And that is exactly how they like it. . . . [She is] the Carrie Bradshaw of New York bloggers." (New York Times )

"Masterfully intertwines the breakdown of her marriage with postdivorce dating exploits.Her confessional, intimate writing style has a magnetic and often voyeuristic appeal that transcends the gloss of her Sex and the City-styleescapades." (Daily News )

"Stephanie Klein's hilarious Straight Up and Dirty is perfect beach-blanket reading." (New York Post )

About the Author

Blogger and author Stephanie Klein was born and raised in New York. She now lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and children.

Customer Reviews

Can I Get My Money Back?
A friend who read the author's blog fanatically reccomended the book to me, so I picked it up a few days after it was released.

I am now seriously reconsidering my friendship with her.

What a pile of dung. I can deal with self-absorption. It's the pretentiousness that made the bile rise for me. The name dropping, label obsessing, the un-oaked chardonnay, gotta marry a Jewish doctor even though the signs were there that he was a tool....You can take the girl out of Long Island, but you can't take the Long Island out of the girl.

I don't begrudge anyone for getting a big fat book deal. Good for her. Now she has all the money she needs for the perfect house, chardonnay, maternity jeans, hair products, pastries, etc.

Save your money. Read the blog. Many of the passages in the book were cut and pasted from it. Just watch out for her Kujoesque fans (apparently she saved their lives, made them better people, got them in touch with their inner pain caused by adolescent bedwetting, etc.)

if at first you don't succeed...
there are so many mean, vicious reviewers out there in amazonia, that i can't help but write this less-than-5-star review with a sense of trepidation. at the same time, i imagine that's thier point-to attack everyone who doesn't think that stephanie klein is the next joan didion (or at least candice bushnell) and thus discourage them from posting a review. well, the crazy superfans don't frighten me!

the fact is, i enjoy SK's blog a lot. while she can come across as superficial, self-centered and materialistic, she also writes great posts about her freindships, family, relationships, love, new york, self, creativity, and, of course, food. and i almost always find her blog writing to be at least decent, usually good, and sometimes really excellent (and regardless of quality, always engaging)-which is more than one can say about most blogs.

one of the reviewers wrote that if you like her blog, you'll probibly like this book, but for me that did not hold true at all. the shocking amount of name dropping, the brutal transitions between writerly descriptive passages (a strength of the blog) and, sorry SK, really, really mediocre dialouge was, to me, much more jarrring than the poorly executed but conventional interlacing of post and pre divorce life.

another reviewer mentioned specifically that the book could have been better edited, and i totally agree. i found that the many passages i recognized from the blog were the best written and did the best job of telling her story, were literary in style and visually evocative, but ten those passages of "real" writing would be followed by wierd hyper-conversational, casual dialogue and asides to the reader. and the way swearing is used in the dialouge-i don't think i've ever seen it come across as more jarring. also, the occasional attempts at "urban" slang make SK come across as sheltered and extremely white, to the point where i find it difficult to relate to her. i'm not saying she's racist at all, because i don't think she is, but she comes across through her use of language as rich and naive. and if she is, she is, but it distracts me from other parts of the story and her charachter, and undermines the narrative as a while. i think it's part the editors job to assure that the narrator, SK, has a consistent and effective voice and relationship with the reader, but clearly the editor was out to lunch, or possible the hamps.

also, i agree with other reviewers-the abbreviations and made up slang are uniformly distressing. furkid. help me. and the constant use of italics with them are slightly insulting, and also distracting. he's a WASband, i get it, because he was your husband, but now you're divorced, so he WAS your husband. also, some thing i think the editor should have done something about.

once the story had progressed somewhat and we leave the hamptons section, which to be different than the millions of other chichi hamptons depticions in nyc chicklit, could have been about friendship, or the natural beauty in contrast to city life, or the fishbowl life style, whathave you, something about the author herself, but instead was just amore descriptions of rich people and rich places (although i did enjoy her digression into being the "least" pretty freind during a girls night out), but once we left that, my least favorite chapter, i found my criticisms waning and lost myself a bit in the story. SK does have something to say, and there are glimpses of it being properly siaid, but just glimpses.

overall the book was hampered by a strange tendency to tell and not show, strange considering the degree of description she can go into on her blog. we only get a minimum of reflection and emotional backstory about the people themselves, and way too much detail about her cute but not that special theories on dating. dan savage and dategirl do much better.

i would have liked to learn more about why she really loved her husband-you need to understand why she wanted a life with him so very much if you're to have any sympathy for her or understand why she stuck around. the mother in law didn't seem great, but she didn't seem like the monster we are told she is. i'm not denying that she was a horrible influence on her son and the marriage, where's the proof? but one example of rearranged furniture does not a story make. i would have liked to know more about her feelings trying to get pregnant during a less than ideal marriage, what she hoped the baby might do for her relationship, and more about her expereince terminating the pergnancy. one again, she told us about it, basically, in a few sentences, but she didn't show us with words. i can imagine that it was difficult, but it's SK's book-it's her job to not make me imagine it, but for her to show me, and in doing so create a reality that is more challenging, informative, and emotionally resonant that what ever fiction about her i may conjure up.

i guess i was hoping that this would be the kind of book that would make you feel connected to the author, relate her to yourself or those you know, and inspire one to maybe tell some stories of ones own, but instead it's one of those books that made me think "hell, i can do better than this".

i do think SK is a talented lady, and some parts of the book are engaging and amusing, just not as much as her blog. perhaps her next book will show her talent more fully.

Why all the fuss?
[...] It really is nothing special. The writing is obtuse and confusing at times, and there appeared to be no "gotcha" moment for Stephanie, a point when she realized she is worthy without a man. Now, I will admit I'm not her target audience, so perhaps that has something to do with my lukewarm feeling about the book. But regardless of her audience, Stephanie's writing is choppy and at times nonsensical. I lost count of how many times she mentioned her breasts and wearing a "wife-beater" -- or 'beater for short. And she referred to diarrhea at least twice as "'rhea." Seriously? I give her credit for putting her life completely out there, but some self-revelations would have been nice.