IN Date Expectations, Paul Reizen, in his own egotistical, yet undeniably realistic and humorous writing style, takes us through his own painful experiences of dating through the personal ads.From crazy hippie girl, to emotionally unavailable posh girl, Reizen reveals his vanities in each dating misadventure, giving an often unflattering view of his personal insecurities and disappointments.
It's a book about him as much as any of the women he meets. Autobiographical, it shows a pompous and vain man: as a woman reading his adventures, I wonder if all men think like this when they’re on dates.
He hides nothing about himself, or about his opinion of the women he meets. For example, one he describes as having the face of an Easter Island statue. Another he compares to a good looking haddock!
Set in a metropolitan frame of mind, the book confronts us with cynical opinion, constant vulgarity and recurrent callousness towards dates. But this helps drag us to the restaurant table next to his.
Reizen perfectly illustrates that the dating scene is an emotional minefield for both parties. In one example, he reluctantly tells us about casually sleeping with two women just days apart from the other – and days after that, a third woman he sleeps with later becomes his wife and mother of his daughter.
It's this happy ending that provides the focus of his book – proof that true love can be found in the personal ads. Aside from the self-indulgent writing style, my only other criticism is that, while most of the book flows smoothly, the final chapter (in which he is dating his future wife) compacts all of the details into a single chapter. It feels rushed and over-glorified, perhaps having something to do with his wife possibly reading over his shoulder!
So, remembering that one man's view is to not be taken as all men's view, readers should read this book and log Paul's mistakes, not be repeated on their own blind dates, or dating in general! As Paul Reizen explains, we learn from every relationship, no matter how short.
-Tina Hulme
