The Quality of Life Report: A Novel

Thanks to Curtis Sittenfeld for her foreward in the new edition, which helped clarify why I loved this book so much when I read it ten years ago, and why I loved rereading it even more. I also feel this book was written for me, and that Daum is incapable of dull writing. This book has deserved way more credit that it has received, and I suspect the problem is its billing as comic, or chick lit, because then readers feel betrayed by the dark turns, the unflinching observations of humanity. For while TQOLR is sharp, hilarious, and a quick read, it's ha-ha in the way that gives you a stitch, as in, "ow." If Daum were a man and had written about war, everyone would be reading this book in the public schools. But no, she writes about everyday hurt, and how naive expectations of living the pastoral American Dream might lead to a faceful of stallion jizz.

Like other readers, I pounced on this the minute it was published because I admire Daum's first book, the essay collection titled MY MISSPENT YOUTH. Like other readers I find THE QUALITY OF LIFE REPORT somewhat problematic. My biggest problem is its strength: I found its unapologetic lessons on living with the choices we make in life dispiriting. The critics who recommend it commend its comic dimensions, which are there, but the projectory of the protagonist's experience in dumping the unaffordable life of Manhattan for the affordable life of a prairie town in the Mid-West is sodden with dramatic irony, not big laughs. HOUSE OF MIRTH and SISTER CARRIE came to mind, not VANITY FAIR or anything Austen. While the book does not end tragically, it lacks the life affirmation that should come in the end of a novel labeled "comic." Another problem is, the comedy is supposed to turn on the contrast between the Manhattanite-Ralph Lauren vision of the country life and what country life and folk really are, but there isn't enough on the Manhattan side, other than yearning references to space, affordability, Willa Cather, Sam Shepard, and Jessica Lange movies to balance the messy and ultimately undefined reality of the country.This is well crafted and, in true Daum fashion, well-observed. There are comic elements. If the book suffers from any one thing, it is that it plays too much by the workshopped rules of contemporary American literary fiction which tend to keep writers sitting on their hands. There should be more anger, more outright hilarity, the rhythm should be punchier.One last problem with this story: knowing that Daum makes no apologies for mining her own life for her work, knowing that she did move to Nebraska and wrote some essays for an e-zine that translated directly into the fiction, I have to ask, did she really live out this entire story? Was she really that dumb about the guy? I want her to be as smart as her sentences. Not all vision has to come from the school of hard knocks and bad choices.

I liked it best for the creatively sardonic and often self deprecating ways the main character describes things. The the town was unrealistically presented as urbane, populated by intelligent, enlightened, laid back liberals. As the story progressed, however, dissonance to that portrayal became evident in most of the characters. Lucinda's boss was an exaggerated characature, and the depiction of her boyfriend and their relationship was so unlikely it failed to be convincing.

Meghan Daum is brilliant and insightful and so very funny. I can't recommend this book enough. It's a snapshot of a time and place that will stay with you forever.

Nice, crisp writing style. Was a fun glimpse into a "New Yorker gone County"

This book began as a sad commentary on modern life but it did pick up a bit towards the end. It was the book selected for our bookclub. I missed the meeting so I can't add comments from others on the book, but it would not be my first choice.

Funny, wild, charming!

Meghan Daum's "The Quality of Life Report" is a TERRIFIC book. I happened to start reading it one weekend when my husband and kids were away, and the first night finally went to bed at 3:00 AM, although I wanted to stay up and just keep reading. I finished it the next afternoon, and it was an altogether delicious use of my time. This is a most satisfying novel."The Quality of Life Report" is a semi-autobiographical tale of one Lucinda Trout, a Manhattan TV producer who is bogged down by doing segments on sushi, the thong underwear craze and so on. She is disgusted by her job, her boss, her life. After having done a piece on meth addiction in the midwestern United States, she moves there and continues to do pieces called "The Quality of Life Report" for her Manhattan TV show.The move is a jolt for Lucinda, but she settled in fairly quickly. She meets all sorts of interesting people--the book fairly teems with characters, all of whom are drawn so full-bloodedly and realistically that you feel as though you are reading about people you know yourself. Without going into the amount of detail that would give away the book's denoument, suffice it to say that Daum doesn't stoop to the pat happy ending--and yet her ending makes perfect, delicious sense.The book is often laugh-out-loud funny. Daum's writing is wonderful, as you can see by the samples below:"Do you ever get, like, harassed?" I asked, now a probing journalist in the Katie Couric vein, unafraid of raising the tough questions. "I mean, being openly gay and living out in the country and everything."Sue looked bewildered. "No." She said this as if I had asked whether coyotes ever came near the house, opened the door, and sprawled out on the couch to watch "Friends."* * *[Lucinda is having a drink with her friend Daphne and tells Daphne that she's contemplating moving to the midwest.]"I think I might have to move there. I think the train has left the station. I have the idea. I can't not do it.""Uh oh," she said. "Alternative Lifestyle Alert."When my friends and I were not discussing the lack of available men, we were usually discussing moving out of New York. Again, the subjects were related, though not entirely. Someone was always coming up with an escape plan, a way to lower the cost of living, a way to increase the odds of meeting a guy who actually knew how to hammer a nail into a piece of plywood. The plans varied according to the books we'd recently read, the movies we'd recently seen, the city most recently featured on "The Real World." We'd say Austin, Seattle, Paris, New Delhi. When somebody came home from an unusual location--a wedding in Nova Scotia or a snorkeling trip in Australia--and spent two weeks obsessing about moving into a yurt on the Bay of Fundy we called it an Alternative Lifestyle Alert. The guiding principle of the Alternative Lifestyle Alert was that it was never acted upon.* * *Daum especially hits the nail precisely on the head when she describes the different way the midwest feels to Lucinda:But descending into Prairie City had a way of making me feel that there was virtually no chance of crashing. There was so much space, so many miles of flat, open fields that landing a plane seemed less a matter of hitting a target than of simply getting close enough.In New York, this had not been the case. At LaGuardia, the smallest error--an extra few degrees of bank to the right, a misheard syllable from a rapid-fire controller--would land you in Flushing Bay. The same principle applied down on the ground. There, the margin for error was so small it was hardly there at all. In New York, you looked to the left and the right and back again, your head spinning from fear and indecision. The wrong college, the wrong job, the wrong direction on the A train could overturn you. We were so careful in the city. We checked ourselves at every corner. We were careful whom we lent things to, whom we invited inside, whom we fell in love with. Like planes stacked up over the airports, we didn't make a move until we knew we were cleared. We dated for years before risking cohabitation. We didn't marry until we were sure we couldn't do better. We didn't have children until it was almost too late. To act sooner, to not agonize over every option until they all practically lost their appeal, would have been to risk disaster. We were packed so tightly and moving so rapidly that one misstep could knock us permanently off course. We always seemed an instant away from losing everything.* * *Daum so perfectly describes Lucinda's awakening (of sorts) and her foibles and her meandering path that you are just amazed when you consider that this is a novel. Such a fully realized modern female character, with such depth and breadth and the full complement of true, human contradictions! It's a breath of fresh air. I really can't recommend the book highly enough--it was truly a pleasure to read and I can't wait for Daum's next book.