The Starter Wife Book

I admit it, I totally fell into the hype - the endless self-promo on USA and little plugs all over the place. Just enough so that you knew Debra Messing was in it and that she got dumped and nothing more. I watched the two-hour premiere of the "television event of the summer" and got hooked. I can't deny that I have a thing for the under appreciated woman who has to find her perfect soulmate before the end of the cinematic or literary event. Who doesn't want the happy ending and the shining knight?? I tried to hold out and watch the whole thing before I dove into the literary counterpart. I have a quirk and it works for me ... If I watch the movie first and then read the book I can love them both for their differences and departures. Conversely, if I read the book first and then watch the movie I am inevitably pissed and apalled at the mangled mess that is put forth to represent such fine literary work. Like I said, a quirk - which translates as: I can't help it and don't pick on me!
Getting back to something nearer to the topic I found that I enjoyed the different aspects of both and there are quite large differences between the two manifestations. I like having Debra Messing as the visual for the main character whether her name is Molly or Gracie - they both work. She looks much healthier in the movie than she ever did on W&G, and her character is by far less annoying than Grace. (Hmm... brainwave - bet they changed the charceter's name to Molly for the movie when they cast Debra to avoid any confusion with the highly successful W&G) I like the way Sam is depicted in the books as opposed to the guy they cast for the movie - more my type. The Lou M. story is so vastly different that I am going to refrain from commenting so as not to spoil anything for anyone. Overall I found the book very enjoyable as a light read for the summer. It was self-empowering and had the happy ending that I find more and more necessary to help me feel better about my life (how sad!) While the style and telling of the story seemed somewhat disjointed at times I couldn't put it down. I absolutely had to find out what happened at the end. I would recommend it to anyone who can look past some flaws.