Review: Short story prequel for The Next Best Thing
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 26, 2012
Swim is a short story prequel for Jennifer Weiner's book The Next Best Thing which will be released in July 2012. Ruth Saunders moved to Los Angeles a few years before the start of Swim, hoping to make it as a screenwriter, but after landing a gig on TV's The Girl's Room she's had some career and romantic set backs so is currently employed helping clueless high school students with the college application process. With Ruth in LA is her lively grandmother, a woman who cooks Thanksgiving-like meals several times a month and who raised Ruth after her parents died in a car accident that left Ruth with an unfortunate scar on her face. Swimming laps alone in the pool is where Ruth feels most comfortable.Ruth holds her application consultation appointments in a coffee shop, commandeering the only table with access to an electrical outlet for her laptop and ignoring the hostile glares of the screen writer wannabes who'd like to plug in their own gadgets. When Gary approaches her, Ruth assumes he wants her outlet, but after observing her activities he has a business proposition--he'd like some help with his online dating profile, a profile headed by his poorly chosen screen name, Lonely-guy. Ruth plunges in and with her advice Gary starts getting more action on the dating site, an outcome that is leaving Ruth with mixed feeling.Swim is humorous without being silly, and as they always do Jennifer Weiner's characters feel like flesh and blood. This download also includes a sample of The Next Best Thing, which opens with Ruth getting the good news that her sitcom, loosely based on her own life, has been green-lighted.