Bitter, Party of One... Your Table Is Ready: Relationship Advice from a Guy Who Has No Business Giving It. by Larry Star (2005, Paperback)

An ancient aphorism says true understanding between two people can only be achieved after each of them walks a mile in the other person's shoes.

Larry Star took that old wive's tale one step further when he put on his ex-wife's bridal gown -- and leaped into internet auction history. In "Bitter, Party of One... Your Table is Ready" eBay's own Wedding Dress Guy* restarts the iconic clock on his 15 minutes of fame with 218 hilariously caustic pages subtitled, "Relationship advice from a guy who has no business giving it."

If you've ever wondered about the story behind his legendary eBay listing, then you'll devour every tasty tidbit of this debut Bitterbooks title.

From frank pre-marital parsing of awkward opening lines through the post-divorce-court Zen epiphany of one man, trashing, Larry Star weaves a tangled tragi-comic tale that ultimately unravels the fabric of a doomed relationship with his self-proclaimed sarcasmist's signature twist of wit and wisdom.

Each wedding-bell bruise along this perfectly nice couple's ridiculously knotty way serves as another matrimonial mnemonic, reminding regaled readers of the author's oft-cited assertion, "...you can't say hilarious without saying Larry!"

My husband's favorite parts of this book were the chapters about shoe shopping and PMS. (Sigh. Men are sSO0o predictable.) I particularly liked the anecdotes about hair removal, optimal tool organization, and riding the bidet backwards. Both of us LoVeD the "blind-date fart hold"...much to the baffled bemusement of our friends, who haven't read the book (yet) but have heard us quote from it (ad nauseum).

Appropriately published in the wedding-centric month of June 2005 -- on the 21st, to be exact -- a sequal to "Bitter, Party of One" supposedly is in the works.

Oops, perhaps we'd better call it a companion volume. Because according to the author's Bitterblog posting on June 19th, 2006, "Attention please...Ahem. I got engaged over the weekend. I know, I know. Shut up."

Whether you buy the softcover trade paperback (preferably on eBay, of course) or download it as an e-book from online publisher iUniverse.com, "Bitter, Party of One...Your Table is Ready" by Larry Star sets a humorously insightful tone that makes this first edition a sweet-hearted addition to any eBayer's library.

[A Brief Disclaimer: The modern-dress Renaissance dude eBayers know and love as "Wedding Dress Larry" is a one-man multimedia marketing marriage made in heaven who continues to amaze and/or amuse us via music, merchandise and manly mentoring FromBothEnds(.com, with licensed therapist Dr. Manual Gomes).

I cannot attest to the efficacy of the latter. However, the journalistic ethics of full disclosure force me to confess herewith that I wrote this entire Book Review in 100%-cotton Wedding Dress Guy lingerie while listening to The Buzzcuts' debut CD, Six Songs. For more details, please refer to my other Reviews.]

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Written by eBay's own WeddingDressGuy, Larry Star (horseplaypublishing), "Bitter, Party of One...Your Table Is Ready" more than lives up to its subtitle: Relationship advice from someone who has no business giving it.

From courtship to the altar to divorce court, the story of the relations trip that led to one man's eBay epiphany is hilarious, touching, and sometimes profound. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and then you'll laugh again -- because the author celebrated the first anniversary of his Bitter publication by getting engaged -- again.

"Bitter, Party of One...Your Table Is Waiting" is available in paperback (as shown above) and also as an Adobe eBook (ISBN: 0-595-80170-6) @ www.iuniverse.com.

It's chick-lit for guys, on eBay or anywhere else.

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