Discussion for "Good in Bed" ----- NEW FORMAT

Replies:

• 
• by
  • camiam81
  on Jul. 1, 2009 at 2:06 PM

• I think her reaction was appropriate, relationships are intimate and to see it printed for the world to read would feel like a violation.  He did have some nice things to say about her though and she could have focused on that.

  How did you feel about her potential meeting with Maxi and how that relationship grew?

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• by
  • SamRoss
  on Jul. 2, 2009 at 8:19 AM

• I loved the relationship with Maxi!  I think they needed each other.  It was fun and developed into a deep friendship.

  Have you ever experienced the sorrow and rage Cannie exhibited after Joy was born?  The walking, etc?  How did you feel about how Cannie reacted to Joy's premature birth and early struggle to live?

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• by
  • houstonmomof3
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 4:23 AM

• Okay, I just finished the book, and I really, really liked it.   At first I thought that she overreacted to Bruce's column, and that he was a pretty good guy who loved her but whose pride had been hurt.  I did think, however, that it was an invasion of her privacy to print an article like that for everyone to read.  Later, when he didn't reply to her letter, I began to think that he was a royal jerk, then we found out that he really was a royal jerk!! 

  I loved the development of Cannie's friendship with Maxi.  I think Maxi needed Cannie at least as much as Cannie needed Maxi.  Maxi needed someone she could be herself with and not feel like she was being judged.  The way she took to the screenplay, and a real character that was not a typical hollywood starlet, says something about Maxi's character also.  I loved the way they met, I thought it was pretty funny.  I would love to have a spa day like they had!

  I never experienced exactly the same things that Cannie did after Joy was born, but, I, thankfully, did not have the same experience.  I would have been pretty angry with my baby's father if  his girlfriend had pushed me down in a bathroom and caused premature labor.  I was on bedrest for several months with my #2 baby, and worried about her constantly, and that situation was not caused by anything but my body.  While I think that the Forrest Gump like trek though Philadelphia was a little much, I believe that there is no limit to what whacked out hormones can do to your body.  I was very glad to see Audrey at the naming ceremony though. 

  Do you think that if Cannie's father hadn't turned his back on her at their meeting in his office in CA, that she would have been so angry with Bruce, thus provoking the argument with E. in the bathroom?

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• by
  • impetuous1
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:36 AM

• I thought the article was a really jerky thing to do- to blindside someone like that. If he was feeling so tender as the article implied, Bruce should have just called her to give her a head's up. What bothered me about Cannie's reaction was that it somehow twisted her up into wanting him back??!!? The author interview I read said that THIS experience (breaking up with someone, and then regretting it) was the impetus for the book. Am I the only one bothered by her obsesson over it? 

  I liked the Maxi relationship too, although I thought it struck me as slightly unrealistic to meet an A-list leading lady in a bathroom like that. Maxi's guard wasn't up at all? Other than that, I thought it was adorable. There was something that bothered me about Cannie's time in CA, though. Maxi (tiny) really had a tshirt oversized enough to fit Cannie? The tiny girls I know wouldn't have a single thing to fit me, and the rest of Maxi's wardrobe doesn't seem to support that she'd own something that didn't fit her.

  To say that a person would be angry about how Joy was born prematurely is an understatement! After the way Bruce ignored her pregnancy, and then to have the baby in danger, and to have had a hysterectomy on top of it??!! I have no idea how I would react. But I was a little bothered that Cannie would let the anger overshadow EVERYTHING like she did. The dog? She just forgot about him? That sounds like serious post-partum psychosis, right? I think that was the point- how far we can fall.  

  I think a lot of the .... less than stable issues Cannie has come from her father. She wasn't merely abandoned, she was emotionally brutalized! I wanted to shoot him in the head for blowing her off like that in CA. DEFINITELY think that trauma led to fighting with Bruce and the girlfriend at the airport, AND probably had a lot to do with the emotional break after Joy was born too.

  How did you feel about Cannie's weight by the end of the book? How much of the problems in this book were really weight-related? After her emotional distress caused her to drop so much weight and get so unhealthy, she comes back to a plump healthy size. Is this realistic and appropriate for her character?

• 
• by
  • camiam81
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 10:43 AM

• I thought the fast friendship with Maxi was unrealistic.  I don't think their meeting and finding a refuge in each other from the same woman was that far off though. 

  I've had really bad depression similar to Cannie.  I was on Prozac during my pregnancy for anxiety caused by the baby putting so much pressure on my chest and lungs that sometimes I couldn't breathe.  Everytime it happened I would freak out, even though I knew I wasn't suffocating I still felt like I was, I just couldn't get my body to believe it and eventually my brain would follow.  Anyway, I had her and everything was great.  The doctor took me off prozac when she was about 5 months old, he said because if he took me off at her birth I would be at great risk for post partum because of the huge hormone change.  Just as I went off it and back to work and caring for a baby, I find my husband at the time cheating and doing drugs.  For about 3 months I was near zombie state.  I couldn't eat, I didn't want to take care of myself or my baby(I did of course, but couldn't even smile).  I didn't want to do anything I might enjoy because it just wasn't the same anymore.  One day I woke up and decided I was done letting him control my life and I eventually went to therapy.  I can see where Cannie was able to let everything go, you can just loose sight of what's important especially when you find so much is out of your control.  I was surprised that the hospital didn't push mental help while she was there.

  Cannie's father is the root of most of her issues.  I don't know how people like her mom and he start off together.  That's how I feel about myself and ex, two different planets, how could we have been together for so long?  I don't know if he was cause for the fight with Bruce.  I felt more like she gave Bruce what he deserved and tried to get away, then the Pusher comes chasing after her to defend her boyfriends actions.  I was surprised how no one else seemed to want to blame the girlfriend.  In my life, most of the people I know would have.

  About Cannie's weight, I think once she realized her father was really a jerk she could start to move on from the pressure he put on her.  Finding a man that loves you and thinks you're perfect the way you are that can really help your confidence too.  I was a size 5/6 until my pregnancy and my body changed.  I'm know still trying to squeeze into a size 8.  It's not much of a difference, but when I had a man telling me throughout my pregnancy and before even leaving the hospital that I was too fat, I believed it.  Life is much better without him, I don't obsess about weight, but I too gained it all back from when I was depressed too.  I don't like stressing over what to eat or excercise obsessively.  It's not me, I want to enjoy my life.

  What are your thought's on Cannie's mother turning into a lesbian after all those years?  Did she loose her faith in men or was she really always a lesbian? 

   

• 
• by
  • luchousdiva
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 1:52 PM

•  I do think that maybe she was confused.  Maybe she thought since she was Jewish that she wasn't suppose to like other woman.  I think that she stayed with that man for the children.  I think she was always a lesbian.  I loved the book.  I think that meeting someone like an A-list star could happen just like that.  They are people too and they try to get away from the hectic lifes that they live.  I didn't think that she over reacted to the collum, it was so personal and it must hurt to see someone you love write how he feels about you in a colum. 

  Why do you think that she didn't like Tanya her mothers girlfriend?  Why didn't she truly give her a try until after she had her breakdown?

• 
• by
  • impetuous1
  on Jul. 5, 2009 at 11:32 AM

• 
  

  What are your thought's on Cannie's mother turning into a lesbian after all those years?  Did she loose her faith in men or was she really always a lesbian? 

  
  I don't think the relationship with Tanya was about being gay or straight- I think it was about being so cut down and damaged by one person that she needed to find something completely different. And Tanya WAS completely different.... lol!

  As a matter of fact, I think that's probably what Cannie's problems with her were- they seemed to be personal rather than gender based- the smoking, the social awkwardness, the LOOM in her bedroom with no warning! That'd be enough to get me off on the wrong foot with anyone. Some of that changed after the breakdown, and Cannie's way of looking at things changed too. I think Cannie would have found severe flaws in anyone her mother was with, because she still had hangups about her father's abandonment. 

  I was interested in Cannie's story, but didn't particularly like her. I didn't relate to her, even though I think I was supposed to as a big girl. There were so many interesting characters on the sidelines that we just got a glimpse of. Who was your favorite character in this book and why?

   

• 
• by
  • camiam81
  on Jul. 7, 2009 at 3:51 PM

•  

  There were so many interesting characters on the sidelines that we just got a glimpse of. Who was your favorite character in this book and why?

   

  
  I liked her sister, Lucy(I think).  She reminds me of my best friend growing up, we were more like sisters.  She of course was younger and doing things like Lucy does.  Even to this day, I can't help but shake my head when she tells me things.

  What did you think of Cannie's first "date" after Bruce?  Why did he ask her out, only to say it's not a date?

• 
• by
  • mupt02
  on Jul. 8, 2009 at 9:33 AM

• I thought Cannie's reaction to Bruce's article was way over the top.  I agree that it was a sleazy thing to do (writing the article), but it really didn't put Cannie in a bad light.  It pointed out a lot of the things that go on in our society.

  Her friendship with Maxi was weird to me.  I agree with the person who said they both needed each other, but it just wasn't realistic.  You generally don't walk into a bathroom and become lifelong friends with the person in the next stall (celebrity or not).

  I can't relate to Cannie's reaction after Joy's birth.  It seemed way over the top.  From the very limited experience I have had around people with post-partum depression, they never have the joy that she had after Joy was born.  Plus, they just kind of check out even from the baby.  Cannie still went back to see the baby everyday.

  I think Cannie's father would have had to have one hell of an explanation to make her less mad.  Any half wit answer would have pissed her off just as much.  But, I don't think there is a good answer to that question, so she probably would have been pissed no matter what.

  The weight issue in the book bothered me.  As I was reading the book, the author made Cannie sound HUGE.  I was picturing 400lbs.  To then learn she was a 16, I was very upset.  I'm a 16-18 and although I have days that I definitely feel big, I don't think of myself as fat.  To sit there and assume that 16 is FAT was realy disturbing.  If she had mentioned the size earlier in the book, I really think I would have stopped reading it because of the portrayal of that size.

  I don't know if Cannie's mother truly turned into a lesbian.  Like someone else said, I think she just wanted something totally different.  I think it was more about companionship than "love"

  I think Cannie didn't like Tanya because she didn't feel she was right for her mother.  When you care about someone, you want someone who is good for them and for the whole situation.  I can relate.  I think after her breakdown, Cannie changed the way she viewed a lot of things and the Tanya situation was one of them.

  For my favorite sideline character, it is a toss up between Sam and Peter.  They were both the best friends who never leave your side and just want what is best for you.  Sam is the person that is not afraid to tell you that she thinks you are making a mistake.  I think that is important.  Peter was the man who was content to let Cannie come around in her own time.  It was nice to see a patient man who really wants what is best for a woman.

   

                            

  
  

  Abigail 5/17/06    Isabelle 10/17/07        Baby #3 Due Dec

  
  

   

  
  

  If you want to make a good investment, take the afternoon off and play with your kids. - paraphrased from Ben Stein

• 
• by
  • luchousdiva
  on Jul. 8, 2009 at 2:47 PM

• Do you think Cannie really learned to except her body after all?  I don't get that from the book.  My favorite sideline character is Peter.  He was just what she needed in her life and he didn't push.  

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