Book 21: The Between Boyfriends Book

Book Title: The Between Boyfriends Book
Author: Cindy Chupack
Published: 2004
Pages: 162
Category: nonfiction, nonfiction: essays

This book arrived at work for me through one of our traveling partners, who was just arriving from the workplace of a really good girlfriend of mine. We’re both single, and oftentimes girls’ nights end up circling around the question of why we’re single, or how other friends’ of ours seem to be perpetually attached.

I, for one, am at a point in my life where friends I used to see daily, through High School, and still frequently through University, are now people I see only so often enough for the inevitable questions to crop up.

No, I’m not talking about “What are you going to do with your life?” (although that one comes up often enough in other circles). I’m talking about “So Pippa, any new men in your life?” or “Any boy gossip?”

I usually respond with a joke about how the closest I have to a relationship is with my laptop or my iPhone. Or how I share my bed with my cat.

So I was interested to see what this book had to say.

The book is by Cindy Chupack, who writes for Sex And The City, never really having gotten into Sex And The City myself, I wasn’t exactly sure of what to expect. I knew it would be fun, a little more girly than my usual – and it definitely lived up to my expectations of fun. It wasn’t the life changing answer to singleness I was (on some level) hoping for, but it sure facilitated a lot of laughter.

One part that particularly make me giggle was a section on nicknames.

“Use nicknames for easy reference. If you’re having trouble keeping your love life straight, imagine how your friends feel. Nicknames make it easier for everyone to follow the saga of Swing Dance Man, Lousy Tipper, Hemp Activist, Bad Hair Guy and The Good Steve.” (page 69-70)

This part took me right back to high school, where we had nicknames for everybody, and even multiple nicknames for certain boys so that different levels of friends could be informed in the hallways of the recent goings on of “This, That, He, Him” and any other number of unassuming pronouns. (This also caused us to get some hilarious looks while talking in seemingly unintelliglbe nonsense sentences.)

Chupack also poses some tough questions about the tough professional trying to make it in Hollywood, such as “How thin do you have to be to go to the gym?” (116) and  “Why is there no market for a non-commercial screenplay about an alien love triangle?” (117) The first being a question I ask myself often on my way to the gym, the second question one I will start asking myself more often from this point on.

I’ll leave you with one more quote from Chupack’s light & fun book;

“I would like to state, for the record, that I still believe there’s a great love out there for each and every one of us. I feel completely confident that none of my amazing single friends will end up alone, and they feel confident I won’t either.” (146)