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Title: Daum can do better
Review: Meghan Daum has proven in her essays she knows how to be funny, insightful, lyrical, interesting. "The Quality of Life Report," however, fails to be any of those things. Once the character Lucinda Trout leaves New York, the book becomes less interesting and a cliche of midwestern life, with only minorly interesting observations. One expects to find corncob pipes in the pockets of the one-dimensional characters Daum's written.The book is mean spirited rather than funny and is not believable (why is she living with that guy??). The potential was there for the book to be an interesting self exploration by the main character but instead dissolves into a predictable Lifetime movie of the week. And why, for the love of God, does Daum spend so much time mentioning that bowl from Pier 1???
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