Shopgirl

By: Steve Martin

Narrated by: Steve Martin

Length: 3 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

One of the country's most acclaimed and beloved entertainers, Steve Martin has written a novella that is unexpectedly perceptive about relationships and life. Martin is profoundly wise when it comes to the inner workings of the human heart.

Mirabelle is the "shopgirl" of the title, a young woman, beautiful in a wallflowerish kind of way, who works behind the glove counter at Neiman Marcus "Selling things that nobody buys anymore..."

Slightly lost but not off-kilter, very shy, Mirabelle charms because of all that she is not: not glamorous, not aggressive, not self-aggrandizing. Still there is something about her that is irresistible.

Mirabelle captures the attention of Ray Porter, a wealthy businessman almost twice her age. As they tentatively embark on a relationship, they both struggle to decipher the language of love - with consequences that are both comic and heartbreaking. Filled with the kind of witty, discerning observations that have brought Martin critical success, Shopgirl is a work of disarming tenderness.

Don't miss Steve Martin, Christopher Buckley, and other humorists discussing their craft at the New Yorker Festival.

©2000 Steve Martin, All Rights Reserved (P)2000 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All Rights Reserved, AUDIOWORKS Is an Imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio Division, Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Grammy Nominee for Best Spoken Word Album

"Martin's elegant, bleak, desolatingly sad first novella is in every sense his most serious work to date." (The New York Times Book Review)

Love Steve martin!

I saw the movie 1st before the book. Found that I loved the book as much, if not more then the movie!

Wonderful story

I’ve loved Steve Martin’s writing for years. One of his many talents!
This is a wonderful story, short by many reader’s standards, I’m sure; but well worth a credit.

Loved it

This was my first audible book to listen to and I am now hooked. I loved this book so much that I bought the bound version for 11 of my friends and relatives for Christmas, however I believe they may not enjoy it as much as I since they won't be fortunate enought to "hear" the author read it. I would love to see more from Steve Martin, as writer or narrator.

The only negative is that the book seems to end in the middle of Mirabelle's of a sub-plot. It was such a strange spot to stop that I thought my player was broken our hadn't downloaded the entire book. If I had been "reading" the book I would have anticipated how close I was to the end, but with audio you never really know, and this book did not end well. Still I enjoyed it a great deal, perhaps there will be a sequeal, to pick up where this one strangely stops.

Contemporary tale about the search for love

Martin has produced a thoughtful tale which is keenly observed and rather touching in the end.

Recommended

Steve Martin's writing unlike his stand up comedy always seems to have a depressing and sad undertone. Yet I still enjoy it, its very real and he has a way of explaining the sadness in every day life. This is yet another one of those books that follow this pattern but I will always want to read them.

quirky

you've got to love S.M. He wrote it, he reads it, he brings it alive. He even knows woman. And I don't believe many men can write from inside a woman's brain.

Great story

I loved the story and was very sad when it ended Steve Martin is so talented.

Martin is such a keen observer...

Having majored in Comparative Literature at a well-known university, I admit to being something of a literary snob. I had uncertain expectations for this novella by an actor. I was very pleasantly surprised and impressed by this well-paced, original story. First of all, the narrative itself is an inventive twist on a conventional love triangle. In fact, it is not really a love triangle at all, but rather the simultaneous story of three intersecting lovers. Secondly, Mr. Martin enriches the tale by weaving in all sorts of precise and humorous observations on daily life, depression, relationships, love, ambition, inertia, and human eccentricities. Some reviewers have said Mr. Martin did not do a good job at expressing and developing the female point of view. Quite the contrary, I was amazed at how well he seemed to be able to crawl into the female psyche. All the characters, with the possible exception of Lisa, were interesting, well-rounded, and real. I cared about them. I don't understand how people can say this book was depressing. Yes, there are moments of despair, but the end is so uplifting (without being trite and "Hollywoodesque") and the story is all about people lifting themselves up, learning to take control of their lives. How is that depressing? Plus some of the laugh-out-loud funny moments (like Lisa's capture of 'Ray') really balance the sadder moments in the book. I also felt that Mr. Martin was an excellent reader (and I have listened to hundreds of audio books). My only complaint is that the last quarter of the book read a bit like an epilogue. It was as if Mr. Martin was on a deadline or trying to meet a page limit, so he summarized the action in a sort of play-by-play rather than really writing the end of the book. I would have loved to read more of his wonderful prose, injected as it was with clever turns of phrase, interesting bon mots, and believable streams of consciousness.

insightful

I actually read Steve MArtin's second novella before this and it is it's own author's recommendation. This story is so well told and insightful that you are sure you know these characters have in fact been these characters at different periods in your life. I loved it so much that I worked out longer than usual so as not to have to push the "off" button on my IPOD.

Not what I anticipated...

thought there would be Steve's sense of humor and comedy....a bit too smutty for me...perhaps tmi on Steve's own carnal desires?