Girls Night Out

by Kathy Lette

Girlfriends are each other's human wonder bras - uplifting, supportive and making each other look bigger and better. He's coming at seven. He promised. Handle it. Act normal. It's your personality he's hot for, you tell yourself as you pumice toes, steam blackheads, razor pits, apply lip bleach and an organic face pack consisting of cucumber, honey, yoghurt and egg whites. The seven friends who get together for a girls' night out believe there are only two things wrong with everything they say and everything they do. Rowena has run away to a commune to 'find herself' (but by that time, will there be anybody home?); 'The Sushi Sisters' are trying to find fame as street singers; and, Soula is trying to find a man who doesn't think monogamy is something you make dining room tables out of (does the teething ring in her boyfriend's pocket mean that he's married?). In these hilarious tales of sun, sex and surf, Down Under Kathy Lette reveals what women really say when men aren't around.

Genres: Fiction, Chick Lit, Humor, Short Stories, Modern

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Kathy Lette divides her time between being a full time writer,
demented mother (now there's a tautology) and trying to find a shopping trolley that doesn't have a clubbed wheel.

Kathy first achieved succés de scandale as a teenager with the novel Puberty Blues, now a major motion picture.

After several years as a singer with the Salami Sisters and a newspaper columnist in Sydney and New York (collected in the book "Hit and Ms") and as a television sitcom writer for Columbia Pictures in Los Angeles, her novels, "Puberty Blues" (1979) "Girls Night Out" (1988), "The Llama Parlour" (1991), "Foetal Attraction" (1993), "Mad Cows" (1996),"Altar Ego" (1998) "Nip'N'Tuck" (2001), "Dead Sexy" (2003) and "How To Kill Your Husband (and other handy household hints)" (2006) became international best-sellers. Kathy Lette's plays include "Grommits", "Wet Dreams", "Perfect Mismatch" and "I'm So Happy For You I Really Am".

She lives in London with her husband and two children and has just finished a stint as writer in Residence at London's Savoy Hotel.

Kathy says that the best thing about being a writer is that you get to work in your jammies all day, drink heavily on the job and have affairs and call it research! (Although her husband says he should have the affair as it would give her a better book!)

Reviews

[Valerie F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Found this in a used bookstore in Katoomba, Australia. It's 80's chicklit from a Facts of Life writer. According to the dust jacket, this book was banned in New Zealand.

[Anna Louise · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is trash. Hard to follow, terrible writing, bare minimum character development and has no flow to it. Only finished it for the sake of finishing, not out of enjoyment. Would rate .5 stars if I could!!!

[Tay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny in parts but also painfully honest and insightful. Very reminiscent of growing up female on the Gold Coast in the late 80's, early 90's, although the stories are set elsewhere.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

1994: a few laughs

[Ophelia Gold · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a definite 0 out of 10 for me. I literally got through half of the book and couldn't push through finishing it and had to throw it away (and that's definitely not like me) the story didn't flow and it jumped from chapter to chapter. The bits that did make sense were gross, boring and couldn't be less entertaining. Nothing about the book is delightful or interesting, a complete waste of time and this hurts me terribly to write this because I am a huge fan of Kathy Lette. From my experience I think it must be her later stuff becomes amazing because this is the second earlier works of hers I've read recently and the other one was terrible to (the llama parlour). If you want a good Kathy Lette pick up Best Laid Plans, I'd advice you don't waste your time with this one.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

One trick pony Lette publishes this mixture of Girls Own horror stories, cranked up to eleven, and a few name-dropping whinge pieces, written for newspaper and magazine columns, with the name of Cleo magazine all-so-casually mentioned in the articles. The stories would have been a bit out of date even when they were published. Included is a grunge piece about a football groupie, a 1970s style story about a bogan going homeless and finding unlikely success as a theatre act, and a few boring stories about unprepossessing married men. Still, its interesting, even if a bit out of date.
If you dislike swearing, I'd stick to Catherine Cookson.

[Lauren B · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this book. I don't often say that, but it's true.
The language was trashy, there were too many swear words, and not one laugh immersed from my lips, they were too busy forming a look of disgust.

[issy_e0 · Rating 3 out of 5]

- i liked reading into the explicit details of the female characters live's.
- the language spoken by the characters was different from the usual language I hear. it took a short time to become familiar enough with the vernacular to understand it.
- i read it quickly in two days because it was entertaining and kept me interested. that could have been because the book was filled with short stories. i doubt that though.
- my favourite story from the book would probably be 'The Sushi Sisters'.
- i liked hearing about the women winge about how poor their relationships with men were. particularly their relationships with their boyfriends. the book showed how their boyfriends were dismissive of their girlfriend's emotional needs and would calm them down with unfulfilling messages of their return later which would make the women happy until they would come back and ignore them. this cycle would repeat and the women in the book would be seen talking together about this similarly shared experience with their female friends. this discussion would ultimately spark abstinence from some of the women which would eventually fail through.

[Bec Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book years ago when I was still naive to the ways of the world and back then I thought this was the best book ever - I did say I was naive - though now after re-reading I find it's very 80's and there's no way to get past that either.....but if your looking for a book that take you back or just take you there, then this is one to read.

[Karschtl · Rating 1 out of 5]

Das Buch hat mir überhaupt nicht gefallen, eines der wenigen Bücher überhaupt die ich nicht zu Ende gelesen habe. Irgendwie scheint es mir, als ob es der Autorin nur um Freaks und ausführliche Beschreibungen von Sex ging.

[zooey glass · Rating 4 out of 5]

“when i told my mother that i was suffering from the oppression of western conditioning, she thought i was talking about shampoo. with parents like that, is it any wonder that i’m spiritually malnourished?”

[Evy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Too many cursing words it made me dizzy. I never got to finish it.

[Melissa Baulch · Rating 2 out of 5]

great in small doses

[Sandra]

picador copy came free with new woman magazine in '93