Summary:
An informal review and summary of How to Heal the Hurt by Hating by Anita Liberty with some comparisons to Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen.
""My boyfriend, Mitchell, whom I dated for three and a half years, left me for a woman named Heather, and, to get even, I have devoted my entire career to humiliating him in public." To find a book devoted to the humiliation of a man, from the woman who was dumped by him, is fantastic. The only result can be intense entertainment, in the vehicle of some good poems and short interludes into the process of getting over Mitchell.
In How to Heal the Hurt by Hating by Anita Liberty, it seems at first that the entire purpose of the book is to show how much Liberty dislikes her recent ex-boyfriend, and the reader is a means of humiliating Mitchell. As you continue into the book, it's quickly evident that this book has no plot. There is no central story line, except an on-going "Get-Over-Him" saga. And even this saga is not part of every occurrence in the book. There are multiple "diary" entries where Liberty talks of her temp job, and a few scripts (though I do not believe they are actual scripts) of her performances at amateur comedy clubs around the New York.
So, this makes it hard to fully decide. What is Anita Liberty really trying to accomplish though having this book published? Warn women about Mitchell's evil ways? Doubtful. Help her organize her thoughts, and have a written record of her "process" for moving on? Probably not since it doesn't really seem as though she does move on. Perhaps the entire reason for this book was simply to entertain an audience, and Mitchell was a good inspiration-something to be sarcastic about. It's impossible to really tell, without asking the author herself.
I found this book to be somewhat like Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen. Both books are written by freethinking women, both are (supposedly (I'll explain this later)) actual accounts of parts from the author's life. Though How to Heal the Hurt by Hating is written with a 1990's mindset, and Girl, Interrupted was written with a 1960's-1970's viewpoint, both are articulate and frank with the views of the author. The other big difference is that Girl, Interrupted is a much more literal account of day-to-day life in an insane asylum. How to Heal the Hurt by Hating is more of a glance into the daily life of Anita Liberty, a rising comedian and now sarcastic, off-kilter, hater of Mitchell.
There are very few characters who are deeply explained in this book. Mitchell, of course, is one. Although the reader can't learn very much about him without a bias, all we know is he left Liberty for a woman, Heather, and had lived with Liberty for three years. The reader also learns of Mitchell's somewhat cheesy attempts to win Liberty's affections back. We also learn a bit about Heather in a poem entitled "Mitchell's New Girlfriend." We learn what sports she likes, and that Liberty thinks Mitchell is now Heather's problem. Not much of an insight into the mind of Heather.
Some other people are introduced, but no sense of personality can really be gathered. Two of the people introduced are friends of Liberty named Lizzy and Samantha. They were both there the night Liberty was dumped, to help pack up Mitchell's stuff and watch Party of Five. Another friend, Bart, was a casual-sex-partner in College (from what I can gather in the one diary entry about him), and then went off and got engaged. Now he won't talk to Liberty, and she wants to make him pay for that. She says, "It takes two people to begin a friendship, and two to end it." Then there's Herb and Luis. They're men who moved Liberty to her new apartment. There's also a handful of nameless men that Liberty had gone on a date with (who all ended up being unattractive physically or psychologically to Liberty for some inane reason). Finally, there is Liberty's gynecologist, Dr. Harris.
I don't really understand why there are so few people explained in How to Heal the Hurt by Hating. I know that when I write a diary or poems, they usually have a lot to do with people around me and how they affect me. Rather then just interludes into my life each day, as well as short poems about how much I hate people in general. Even when a poem is written about hating people in general, one would think that there would be a specific person who started it all. I also have to wonder, what was Anita Liberty like before she was dumped by Mitchell. Has she always been this cynical towards men? What about her feelings towards the world"
Finally, I should explain what I meant earlier about How to Heal the Hurt by Hating being an actual account (supposedly) of the author's life. On the last page of the book, in the "About the Author" section, it says (and I quote), "Anita Liberty is a character created and performed by Suzanne Weber." I read this and thought, Whoa. Wait a second, back up. First of all, you tell people when you're using a pseudonym nowadays? Anne Rice writes under a pseudonym, but as far as I know, the names weren't connected in public for years. Or is this even a pseudonym so much as just a character that Ms. Weber got REALLY into? If this is the case, that means Mitchell doesn't exist right? Or is it just a different name for the name guy who dumped Weber and inspired to write this book? This requires way too much thought for such a seemingly simple concept.
Despite this weirdness that I was left with at the end of the book, I would definitely recommend this book to any girl. It's funny and refreshing. Many of my friends are also sarcastic (bordering on cynical), and could definitely appreciate this view. Anita Liberty (or Suzanna Weber as the case may be) is just an older, funnier mindset then my friends. Plus she lives in New York, which is another completely different mindset then that of most small-town-inhabitants.
This is the complete article, containing 1,018 words
(approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page).
