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Spent: Memoirs of a Shopping Addict
As a child, Avis Cardella devoured the glamorous images in her mother's fashion magazines. She grew up to be one of the people in them, living a life that seemed to be filled with labels and luxury. But shopping had become a dangerous addiction. She forwent food for Prada. Credit card debt blossomed like the ever-increasing pile of unworn shoes and clothing in the back of her closet. She defined herself by the things she owned and also lost herself in the mad hunt for the perfect pair of pants or purse that might make her feel whole.
Spent is Avis Cardella's timely, deeply personal, and shockingly dramatic exploration of our cultural need to spend, and of what happens when someone is consumed by the desire to consume.
Spent is Avis Cardella's timely, deeply personal, and shockingly dramatic exploration of our cultural need to spend, and of what happens when someone is consumed by the desire to consume.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2010
20 people are currently reading
392 people want to read
About the author
Avis Cardella
3 books3 followersAfter spending her formative years reading fashion magazines voraciously, Avis Cardella found her calling writing about fashion, photography, and culture. She has written for British Vogue, American Photo, and Surface, among other publications. She lives in Paris with her husband.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 63 reviews
May 26, 2010
I really wanted to love this book like I do a good shopping spree but I felt like it fell flat along the way. Avis Cardella gives us a ton of detail on outfits, brands and luxury stores she buys, visits and conquers but never really gives the reader an equal look at why her life and relationships fail. The real interest in reading a book like this is to see 'why' she feels compelled to clothe herself into a high tower away from actual people who might love her back. The scenery she paints makes a great start to a good road trip but the story is like driving around the block a hundred times. It just left me unsatisfied.
June 6, 2010
I couldn't muster up any sympathy for this shopaholic who could combine the income from her fabulous fashion writing job with her unlimited credit to afford outrageously priced designer duds. Nor did I feel bad for her when her string of wealthy boyfriends insisted on buying her Dior suits and diamond rings. There was very little mention of how the spending affected her financially and even emotionally. She would have been better off writing a memoir about the joys of shopping.
October 9, 2010
Sounded intriguing but got boring really fast. It's just not interesting reading how many different outfits she bought, especially when she details what outfits she bought and what she wore on what day... who cares? And then there was barely any focus on how much debt she had and she seems to get out of it pretty easily, surprisingly so considering the cost of the outfits she was buying. Meh.
May 27, 2010
I received a free copy of this book through a Goodreads first reads giveaway.
It's oddly emotionless for a memoir. At times, the author leans toward documenting other people's shopping addictions. She talks about one part of her life or another, but rarely explains why she chose the path she did.
It's oddly emotionless for a memoir. At times, the author leans toward documenting other people's shopping addictions. She talks about one part of her life or another, but rarely explains why she chose the path she did.
December 1, 2010
Well... I am ashamed to say I saw a lot of myself in this book. This book is a brave, honest look into shopping addiction - why we shop, how we try to pacify low self esteem and gain identity through purchasing items we feel represent who we want to be, or what we "deserve." The author bravely tells stories about the seduction of luxury - from how the boutiques look, how the sales people act, how the men she kept choosing liked to make her over, not realizing she was in fact losing herself instead of gaining a fabulous new life.
The only criticism I have is that there wasn't really a discussion about how it felt to stop, and what I am sure were major stumbling blocks around the way. It went from the rock bottom description of how she spent her last $20 on something she didn't need, just to get the "fix" of buying to (paraphrased highly by my snarky self) "Well, so I stopped, and my life was so much better, and I got married, and life is great now basically, yay." The ending seemed to gloss over it all, and rush through it all. I wanted to hear about HOW she reconnected with her husband, how her daily life has changed. We just aren't allowed that peek into her life, which seemed odd given how candid she was in the rest of the book.
The only criticism I have is that there wasn't really a discussion about how it felt to stop, and what I am sure were major stumbling blocks around the way. It went from the rock bottom description of how she spent her last $20 on something she didn't need, just to get the "fix" of buying to (paraphrased highly by my snarky self) "Well, so I stopped, and my life was so much better, and I got married, and life is great now basically, yay." The ending seemed to gloss over it all, and rush through it all. I wanted to hear about HOW she reconnected with her husband, how her daily life has changed. We just aren't allowed that peek into her life, which seemed odd given how candid she was in the rest of the book.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 11, 2011
From page 199:
"In physics, chaos is a temporary state between one natural state of harmony and its transformation into a higher form. The transition could be choppy. I was in the middle of transition."
OMG, what on earth is she talking about? That is a total violation of the second law of thermodynamics and the natural universe.
This book is shopping porn for addicts. I am not an addict and have no idea why I bothered to finish this book. Perhaps I was hoping it would redeem itself, but it did not.
"In physics, chaos is a temporary state between one natural state of harmony and its transformation into a higher form. The transition could be choppy. I was in the middle of transition."
OMG, what on earth is she talking about? That is a total violation of the second law of thermodynamics and the natural universe.
This book is shopping porn for addicts. I am not an addict and have no idea why I bothered to finish this book. Perhaps I was hoping it would redeem itself, but it did not.
April 27, 2021
Autorka doslova nudne a zdĺhavo opisuje svoj život - závislý od nakupovania. Ja som pri čítaní knihy normálne padala na zadok a rozmýšľala, ako len Avis dokázala dať dokopy zhruba 240 strán, na ktorých nie je nič iné len nakupovanie. Zvyšok recenzie nájdete tu: http://kokina1.blogspot.sk/2011/08/zi...
July 11, 2010
I zipped through this and enjoyed it, but I suppose I found it difficult to relate to someone who runs in these circles (who attends fashion week, lives in Manhattan, and has extremely wealthy boyfriends who buy her designer suits.)
July 12, 2010
avis cardella always admired her mother's stylish dressing, & became addicted to women's fashion magazines at a young age. she came of age during the nascence of luxury designer brands, wearing gloria vanderbilt corduroy jeans to studio 54. she tried to parlay her obsession with the fashion industry into a modeling career, but it didn't really go anywhere. instead, cardella started a relationship with a wealthy german photographer who showered her with designer clothes & gave her a job as his assistant.
slowly growing accustomed to a standard of living a world beyond anything she ever experience growing up, & being sucked into the world of easy credit, cardella begins to use shopping as an emotional crutch after her mother's unexpected death. she begins lying to her boyfriend about how much time she spends shopping, & anesthizes her grief by spending more & more time in timeless, placeless shops, where she can try on clothes & imagine that this is the purchase that will change her life. she even starts developing physical symptoms--hyper-sensitivity to her environment, sweating palms, etc, that are only alleviated by buying something. soon cardella in buying things only to leave the shopping bags unopened in the back of her closet for months or years.
the spending creeps up on her & slowly takes a toll on her financial life. her boyfriend doesn't know how many credit cards she has or how much debt she's racking up. cardella fantasizes that she can get everything under control & pay it all off on her own, but she can't as long as her solution to stress is to go shopping. when she splits up with her boyfriend after admitting to herself that she doesn't want to get married & have children, she is faced with the reality that she's become accustomed to a lifestyle that is wildly beyond her means.
i kind of like addiction stories, i guess because i have an addictive personality & i like to be aware of what i'm up against if i'm not vigilant. there were aspects of this story that were interesting, like cardella's frank assessments of new york wealth & the constant struggle for physical perfection. she writes about all the money that goes into achieving the perfect hair, the perfect skin, the perfect body that can fit into clothes from sample sales, & how all of these elements are absolutely crucial to receiving respectful treatment from the salespeople at high-end shops. i think there's this unconscious belief in american society that if you just try hard enough, you can look like whatever starlets are making the rounds, & you can have what they have. but this book makes clear (& contemptuously so) that that life requires incredible amounts of work & financial backing that the average person (especially a person who wishes to have any kind of life outside of the pursuit of physical perfection) can't really hope to replicate. cardella is bitterly honest about the toll the pursuit took on her life.
it's true that the whole book strikes an oddly emotionless note, & as such, it was hard to get invested. but i guess that beats yet another histrionic addiction memoir, the author over-reaching in her sordid attempts to convince that the reader that being $2000 in credit card debt was the ninth circle of hell. i mean, not to minimize, but i guess the emotionlessness was a refreshing change from all the "celebrity intervention"-style emotional manipulations out there.
slowly growing accustomed to a standard of living a world beyond anything she ever experience growing up, & being sucked into the world of easy credit, cardella begins to use shopping as an emotional crutch after her mother's unexpected death. she begins lying to her boyfriend about how much time she spends shopping, & anesthizes her grief by spending more & more time in timeless, placeless shops, where she can try on clothes & imagine that this is the purchase that will change her life. she even starts developing physical symptoms--hyper-sensitivity to her environment, sweating palms, etc, that are only alleviated by buying something. soon cardella in buying things only to leave the shopping bags unopened in the back of her closet for months or years.
the spending creeps up on her & slowly takes a toll on her financial life. her boyfriend doesn't know how many credit cards she has or how much debt she's racking up. cardella fantasizes that she can get everything under control & pay it all off on her own, but she can't as long as her solution to stress is to go shopping. when she splits up with her boyfriend after admitting to herself that she doesn't want to get married & have children, she is faced with the reality that she's become accustomed to a lifestyle that is wildly beyond her means.
i kind of like addiction stories, i guess because i have an addictive personality & i like to be aware of what i'm up against if i'm not vigilant. there were aspects of this story that were interesting, like cardella's frank assessments of new york wealth & the constant struggle for physical perfection. she writes about all the money that goes into achieving the perfect hair, the perfect skin, the perfect body that can fit into clothes from sample sales, & how all of these elements are absolutely crucial to receiving respectful treatment from the salespeople at high-end shops. i think there's this unconscious belief in american society that if you just try hard enough, you can look like whatever starlets are making the rounds, & you can have what they have. but this book makes clear (& contemptuously so) that that life requires incredible amounts of work & financial backing that the average person (especially a person who wishes to have any kind of life outside of the pursuit of physical perfection) can't really hope to replicate. cardella is bitterly honest about the toll the pursuit took on her life.
it's true that the whole book strikes an oddly emotionless note, & as such, it was hard to get invested. but i guess that beats yet another histrionic addiction memoir, the author over-reaching in her sordid attempts to convince that the reader that being $2000 in credit card debt was the ninth circle of hell. i mean, not to minimize, but i guess the emotionlessness was a refreshing change from all the "celebrity intervention"-style emotional manipulations out there.
September 21, 2011
I picked this novel up, expecting to read about an online shopper gone out-of-control or the desperate housewife with 50 credit cards maxed out at Walmart. The level and luxury of this particular case surprised me. Avis Cardella, a successful fashion writer, whose compulsion to shop found solace and soothing in designer clothes with designer prices, leading to jaw-dropping debts, habits and eventually, such a stark, sparse way of living where stability was sacrificed for the next item of luxury clothing.
Cardella grew up in a middle class family, always loving clothes. When describing the salient experiences of her childhood, she can remember what she was wearing. She constantly read fashion magazines and even forayed briefly into shoplifting. For her, shopping was the building blocks that formed her foundation of an identity. It is startling to hear the accounts of the drug-like symptoms and effects shopping would have on her. Cardella describes a heightened sensitivity, pounding heart and a powerful euphoria
However, it’s the sudden, unexpected death of her mother, which really “sparks something that had been there all along.” She uses shopping to soothe her emotions and numb the throbbing grief within her. Men, mainly men with money, fueled her addiction, she recounts a bad marriage and a subsequent “escape” into a long relationship with a wealthy partner, but my sympathy found its limits with her affair.
She mentions outside sources that could have influenced her, such as America’s desire for consumerism, how “keeping up with the Jonses” is so valued in society and continues to increase to an impossible level. Cardella also interjects certain clinical findings amidst the pages. I learned the compulsion to shop was clinically termed “oniomania” in 1915 and Mary Todd Lincoln was thought to suffer from the addiction; it is rumored she once bought 84 pairs of gloves a month.
But it’s Cardella's story that is in the spotlight, her iron-clad, preposterous belief that if she purchased a certain item it would start a chain reaction of events to change her life and make it better. She illustrates the power in shopping, how it churns a “fluid nature of identity,” and creates a never-ending “desire for transcendence.” While there were some relatable aspects as a female, women who write these types of memoirs take behaviors to the extreme and seem truly adrift, floating through life, which ultimately made it applicable. Cardella was honest and analytical, for the most part. It seemed her recovery was a bit glossed over near the end. She owned her own personal issues and didn’t settle for easy answers, but the writing felt a little choppy at parts.
Adult relationships are mentioned, but nothing explicit or graphic.
Favorite Quotes:
“In that moment, I realized that I wanted to be exactly like my mother and nothing like my mother.”
“..storm of mixed signals that would confront me in the coming decades.”
“…start where you left off, do not avoid the difficult parts.”
Cardella grew up in a middle class family, always loving clothes. When describing the salient experiences of her childhood, she can remember what she was wearing. She constantly read fashion magazines and even forayed briefly into shoplifting. For her, shopping was the building blocks that formed her foundation of an identity. It is startling to hear the accounts of the drug-like symptoms and effects shopping would have on her. Cardella describes a heightened sensitivity, pounding heart and a powerful euphoria
However, it’s the sudden, unexpected death of her mother, which really “sparks something that had been there all along.” She uses shopping to soothe her emotions and numb the throbbing grief within her. Men, mainly men with money, fueled her addiction, she recounts a bad marriage and a subsequent “escape” into a long relationship with a wealthy partner, but my sympathy found its limits with her affair.
She mentions outside sources that could have influenced her, such as America’s desire for consumerism, how “keeping up with the Jonses” is so valued in society and continues to increase to an impossible level. Cardella also interjects certain clinical findings amidst the pages. I learned the compulsion to shop was clinically termed “oniomania” in 1915 and Mary Todd Lincoln was thought to suffer from the addiction; it is rumored she once bought 84 pairs of gloves a month.
But it’s Cardella's story that is in the spotlight, her iron-clad, preposterous belief that if she purchased a certain item it would start a chain reaction of events to change her life and make it better. She illustrates the power in shopping, how it churns a “fluid nature of identity,” and creates a never-ending “desire for transcendence.” While there were some relatable aspects as a female, women who write these types of memoirs take behaviors to the extreme and seem truly adrift, floating through life, which ultimately made it applicable. Cardella was honest and analytical, for the most part. It seemed her recovery was a bit glossed over near the end. She owned her own personal issues and didn’t settle for easy answers, but the writing felt a little choppy at parts.
Adult relationships are mentioned, but nothing explicit or graphic.
Favorite Quotes:
“In that moment, I realized that I wanted to be exactly like my mother and nothing like my mother.”
“..storm of mixed signals that would confront me in the coming decades.”
“…start where you left off, do not avoid the difficult parts.”
February 28, 2012
Cardella is a wholly unsympathetic character. She frequents Bergdorf's and Bloomingdale's and has a string of relationships with men who buy her nice things (Prada suits, luxury vacations, pricy handbags, etc.), which only fuels her shopping addiction.
I don't doubt Cardella was a shopping addict. I do think she has a boatload more issues than that, though, which I think she finally started realizing and dealing with. The book had a very flat, depressing undertone and very little about how she got our of her financial mess. I get that she worked with a debt counselor who dealt with most of her CC's and reduced her payments to around $175/month (for like 44 months). She made herself sound like a pretty successful freelance writer and mentioned she made $2,000/article several times. I get she lives in NYC (though one could argue this as a choice/luxury) and it's expensive, but since she didn't share her whole financial picture it's really hard to identify with her exact situation and how dire it was (or wasn't). She certainly had a bevy of friends, families, and former boyfriends to borrow money from (and which she often used to go shopping again).
Overall, not a big fan of this one.
I don't doubt Cardella was a shopping addict. I do think she has a boatload more issues than that, though, which I think she finally started realizing and dealing with. The book had a very flat, depressing undertone and very little about how she got our of her financial mess. I get that she worked with a debt counselor who dealt with most of her CC's and reduced her payments to around $175/month (for like 44 months). She made herself sound like a pretty successful freelance writer and mentioned she made $2,000/article several times. I get she lives in NYC (though one could argue this as a choice/luxury) and it's expensive, but since she didn't share her whole financial picture it's really hard to identify with her exact situation and how dire it was (or wasn't). She certainly had a bevy of friends, families, and former boyfriends to borrow money from (and which she often used to go shopping again).
Overall, not a big fan of this one.
September 16, 2012
I'm a sucker for a memoir. Can't get enough of them. I liked this one. I could relate to fashion magazines impacting self image and remember pouring through issues of Glamour and Cosmopolitan at age 13...and understanding only 25% of the article content. But I understood the images 100% and like Avis Cardella, I longed to become like them. I too was a lost teenage grasping for someone or something to show me the way. Unlike Ms. Cardella, I didn't have the funds to support a habit and was probably the only girl in my junior high to never own a pair of designer jeans. My parents imparted just enough frugality in me.
I enjoyed reading about Ms. Cardella's journey to self-awareness and transformation. I enjoyed reading about the clothes and the luxuries of her addiction, but felt her portrayal of the downside of it just didn't ring impactful enough for me. She wasn't after all a heroin addict living in a doorway with two teeth. But I could relate to the search to become authentic when you feel your identity is just simply lost or never really established in the first place.
I enjoyed reading about Ms. Cardella's journey to self-awareness and transformation. I enjoyed reading about the clothes and the luxuries of her addiction, but felt her portrayal of the downside of it just didn't ring impactful enough for me. She wasn't after all a heroin addict living in a doorway with two teeth. But I could relate to the search to become authentic when you feel your identity is just simply lost or never really established in the first place.
March 1, 2014
I could relate to this book for a split second when it reminded me of a phase I went through, shopping every day and buying expensive items. I, however went through some serious trauma and grief so I found it difficult to sympathize with Cardella as I didn't feel she had really suffered to warrant such turmoil. Or perhaps she didn't look at herself deeply enough because she really gave a poor explanation for how she became this way.
I couldn't even make it to the 3rd chapter for I had an inkling that she wasn't going to reveal much from what I had already read.
It was so tiresome I can't believe this rubbish gets printed. Cardella doesn't really give insight to this addiction but merely gets off on being narcissistic about her purchases. B O R I N G !
I couldn't even make it to the 3rd chapter for I had an inkling that she wasn't going to reveal much from what I had already read.
It was so tiresome I can't believe this rubbish gets printed. Cardella doesn't really give insight to this addiction but merely gets off on being narcissistic about her purchases. B O R I N G !
December 18, 2010
I seem to have been shopping a little too much lately, so thought it was an apt time to read this. I think reviewers are being a little hard on this here - I would give it 3.5, because although it's a little hard to sympathise at times, she obviously does deal with a genuine emotional struggle.
January 13, 2011
I am so sorry I spent money on this book. It is poorly written and misleading. All the hype about this book is she's a former model. By her own words she modeled very little. So save your money and do not bother with this book. It's boring!
November 5, 2013
Eh, not a lot of "there" there. Her addiction story reads like a love letter to high-end fashion, while her recovery... apparently just happens? She just somehow realizes on her own that her shopping is disordered, so she magically gets better. Or something.
Read
September 27, 2013Ik heb hem niet uitgelezen. Misschien wel interessant maar niet voor mij ;-).
April 2, 2020
“I even had to remove $500 from a trust my father had set up for me.”
...!
...!
Read
August 25, 2019Felt like someone is who STILL talking about that same thing...
pg 3 I realized that I was no longer consuming; I was just being consumed.
pg 6 I used shopping to avoid myself.
pg 26 I let these images imprint their messages on me
pg 50 I neglected my own need to mourn and grieve and concentrated on caring for my father. His pain and loss trumped my own. I can put things on hold, I told myself, and I did. I sidelined my grief.
At first, I remember believing that because I could eat, sleep, walk, and talk as I normally had, I was handling things okay.
pg 55 Just another extravagance that I felt I needed: a new decade, a new lover, and a new perfume
pg 60 The whole process of making a fashion photograph-the hair, makeup, location, and clothes- revolves around creating an illusion.
pg 76 I was a pushover at this point, too tired, vulnerable, and insecure to resist. It felt good to fall into the cradle of someone else's care and vision of who I should be
pg 84 I had made an outline of myself. The substance of me was put on hold; that would have to be filled in somewhere along the way.
pg 85 TO be surrounded by everything that constitutes the good life --the life that was being sold on the pages or magazines, in movies, books and television shows, in shops-- is to, at least partially, be out of touch with a larger reality.
I don't think i ever really plumped the depth of Thomas, not in the way one person who shares a full decade of her life with another should. I accepted the surface and let it go at that. Equally, I believed there were entire vistas of me that he never knew existed. This being the case, shopping seemed to take the place of other forms of communication.
pg 147 there i was making up magazine-style pictures of my life again
pg 203 January seemed light-years away, and so I decided that buying an inexpensive coat was the thing to do.
Maybe i had finally gone numb, and shopping was losing its appeal. Was numbness the first step on my road to recovery? If i no longer felt any of the buzz, the butterflies, and the euphoria that had accompanied nearly all of my purchases, maybe I had had a breakthrough.
pg 243, 253
pg 3 I realized that I was no longer consuming; I was just being consumed.
pg 6 I used shopping to avoid myself.
pg 26 I let these images imprint their messages on me
pg 50 I neglected my own need to mourn and grieve and concentrated on caring for my father. His pain and loss trumped my own. I can put things on hold, I told myself, and I did. I sidelined my grief.
At first, I remember believing that because I could eat, sleep, walk, and talk as I normally had, I was handling things okay.
pg 55 Just another extravagance that I felt I needed: a new decade, a new lover, and a new perfume
pg 60 The whole process of making a fashion photograph-the hair, makeup, location, and clothes- revolves around creating an illusion.
pg 76 I was a pushover at this point, too tired, vulnerable, and insecure to resist. It felt good to fall into the cradle of someone else's care and vision of who I should be
pg 84 I had made an outline of myself. The substance of me was put on hold; that would have to be filled in somewhere along the way.
pg 85 TO be surrounded by everything that constitutes the good life --the life that was being sold on the pages or magazines, in movies, books and television shows, in shops-- is to, at least partially, be out of touch with a larger reality.
I don't think i ever really plumped the depth of Thomas, not in the way one person who shares a full decade of her life with another should. I accepted the surface and let it go at that. Equally, I believed there were entire vistas of me that he never knew existed. This being the case, shopping seemed to take the place of other forms of communication.
pg 147 there i was making up magazine-style pictures of my life again
pg 203 January seemed light-years away, and so I decided that buying an inexpensive coat was the thing to do.
Maybe i had finally gone numb, and shopping was losing its appeal. Was numbness the first step on my road to recovery? If i no longer felt any of the buzz, the butterflies, and the euphoria that had accompanied nearly all of my purchases, maybe I had had a breakthrough.
pg 243, 253
November 13, 2023
I read this book twice and would not read it a third time, but really enjoyed it. I would strongly recommend it. Avis is a very interesting person and has an a unique story to tell that anyone with any type of addiction will relate to. I also appreciated, as someone who is not good-looking, that she did not put others down who are not attractive like she is. Some of my favorite aspects of the book: her friendship with the Asian man, her portrait of grief, when she got into the closet, and her boyfriend with all the clutter. She is a very special person, and one who is strong, talented, and powerful. This book is not chick lit and instead is a refreshing dark, mesmerizing look into one person’s pain and recovery.
May 11, 2020
Not a shopping addict so I couldn't find any empathy for Cardella's experience. I felt that she had been very lucky to have wealthy boyfriends to fuel her addiction. It's also a pain to read due to it's writing style, like many said - emotionless.
January 5, 2018
Love this little book. I've read it twice. Cardella is more talented than she knows. She has a great eye for detail and I find her likeable. She writes with honesty.
November 30, 2018
Painfully honest..compelling story of a misunderstood and serious problem facing many people today.
January 18, 2025
Disappointing, wanted it to be better but short and sweet
March 4, 2025
Loved this. As a fashion lover questioning my own money story, this resonated.
January 7, 2019
Spoveď ženy, ktorá trpela tzv. oniomániou, chorobnou túžbou nakupovať. Pomerne solídne spracované „zápisky shopaholičky“. Opisuje svoje stavy, automatické, impulzívne nakupovanie a dopĺňa rozprávanie aj faktografiu, štatistiky a štúdie (nie je nad to, ak si „závislák“ vie svoju závislosť racionalizovať). Avis píše, ako pôvodne dievčenskú rebéliu a spoznávanie matky a dcéry skrz spoločné nakupovanie, vystriedala nekontrolovaná vášeň nakupovať veci. Vášeň, ktorú ešte akcelerovala matkina smrť. Avis rýchlo prešla od nákupov, ktoré si mohla dovoliť, po nerozumné tajné utrácanie za luxusný tovar a zbytočností. Deväťdesiate roky v New Yorku na úsvite novej éry konzumerizmu, boli skvelým podhubím. Nakupovanie bolo schválené societou, bolo normou, status sa meral materiálnym bohatstvom. Avis sa snažila definovať skrz veci, ulahodiť svojmu submisívnemu egu nakupovaním toho, čo často ani nepoužila. Logicky spadla do pasce všadeprítomných kreditných kariet a pôžičkami splácala kopiace sa dlhy. Jej chorobné správanie často vyznievalo ako konanie zlatokopky: snažila sa doslova uloviť bohatých mužov, aby mala rozpočet na svoje nákupy a bezchybnú vizáž. V doslove sa píše, že už je vyliečená a žije v s manželom v Paríži. Celé mi to pripomenulo tvorbu Sophie Kinsella, vlastným menom Madeleine Wickhamovej, ktorá napísala o shopaholikoch už asi 8 kníh. Prvá z nich The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic bola sfilmovaná pod názvom „Confessions of a Shopaholic“ (2009). #movieorbook
May 20, 2022
The topic was really interesting but the execution lacking. Cardella describes well how the (even to herself incomprehendible) compulsive shopping affected her life and finances, but leaves other parts of the story strangely unexplained. For example, we hear that a relative out of the blue cut all connections with her for a decade, but this isn't mentioned further for more than a few sentences. What happened? How did this affect the author? She mentiones her mother's passing away several times and speculates how this may have affected her behaviour, but this other traumatic event is not discussed. Why?
Also, there is a strange omission of the author's age at almost all parts of the story, and her year of birth is neither mentioned in the info about the author. She tells us the exact date of her first marriage, but doesn't mention her age during this event. In the first chapter I thought the author was describing herself as a twenty-something young adult, but it turns out she was almost 40 at the time the events in the first chapter occured. Left me as a reader confused, why hide the information about her age if you writing openly about one's life? Some anchoring in time would have helped me as a reader understand where in her life what happened.
At one time she meets a friend in the street and casually mentions that she hasn't eaten for three days, but does not explain why. Is this something she does regularly? Due to depression? Lack of money? Or is it normal Manhattan behaviour? I don't know, and it confuses me. Why mention something as weird as this without giving any explanation? The transitions from topic to topic were also sometimes very jumpy.
The author does very little explaining about her own little bubble. There seems to be a neverending queu of superrich bachelors just strolling her way and lavishing her with luxury gifts. Was this just the author's luck or normal in her circles? I have no idea what was going on i New York in the 90's, so please explain and don't just tell me stuff like this without any context!
In the end Cardella's financial problems are solved, but there is no description about any emotions that this (probably hugely relieving event) caused. The end felt hurried and unsatisifed, since the author had spent a lot of time discussing her financial dilemma. There was also lots of label dropping and mentions of what brand the clothes that she wore was, could have done with less of that and had more explanations. As a journalist, I expected the author to be more capable of describing her feelings, motives and circumstances to the reader but got a disappointing story that felt esoteric and haphazard.
Also, there is a strange omission of the author's age at almost all parts of the story, and her year of birth is neither mentioned in the info about the author. She tells us the exact date of her first marriage, but doesn't mention her age during this event. In the first chapter I thought the author was describing herself as a twenty-something young adult, but it turns out she was almost 40 at the time the events in the first chapter occured. Left me as a reader confused, why hide the information about her age if you writing openly about one's life? Some anchoring in time would have helped me as a reader understand where in her life what happened.
At one time she meets a friend in the street and casually mentions that she hasn't eaten for three days, but does not explain why. Is this something she does regularly? Due to depression? Lack of money? Or is it normal Manhattan behaviour? I don't know, and it confuses me. Why mention something as weird as this without giving any explanation? The transitions from topic to topic were also sometimes very jumpy.
The author does very little explaining about her own little bubble. There seems to be a neverending queu of superrich bachelors just strolling her way and lavishing her with luxury gifts. Was this just the author's luck or normal in her circles? I have no idea what was going on i New York in the 90's, so please explain and don't just tell me stuff like this without any context!
In the end Cardella's financial problems are solved, but there is no description about any emotions that this (probably hugely relieving event) caused. The end felt hurried and unsatisifed, since the author had spent a lot of time discussing her financial dilemma. There was also lots of label dropping and mentions of what brand the clothes that she wore was, could have done with less of that and had more explanations. As a journalist, I expected the author to be more capable of describing her feelings, motives and circumstances to the reader but got a disappointing story that felt esoteric and haphazard.
May 16, 2010
"Spent", by Avis Cardella, is an extremely well-written, non-fiction account of life with an addiction to shopping. Shopping addiction or compulsive shopping is not a recent phenomenon but it has only started to become seriously addressed and treated within the last 10 years.
Cardella starts telling her story when she was a child watching her mom parade around the apartment in her palazzo pants and digging fashion magazines out of the bottom of grocery bags. Then, as a young woman how her life changed from a receptionist and struggling model to a fashion journalist and the lover of a wealthy businessman.
She is a very sympathetic character and I think many people can identify with her uncertainty about her future, what she “should” be doing with her life, and the pursuit of a career and lifestyle that will make her happy.
Through the downs in her life―her failed marriage and relationships and the great tragedy of her mother’s premature death, she used shopping to cope. However, after her break-up with her rich fiancé she could no longer afford the lifestyle she had become accustomed to and her shopping addiction began to ruin her financially. Cardella’s reflections about her situation became repetitive and onerous mostly because she kept coming to the same conclusions but she was either not strong enough to act or she didn’t know how. If these reflections could have been condensed I think it would have greatly improved the flow of the book.
While her career may have been on an upswing she couldn’t control herself or manage her money. She consistently held the admittedly naïve and mistaken belief after every purchase that this time it would be “the one” that would change things for her and turn her life around for the better. At the end of the book the author finally seeks help and starts to get her finances in order and pay down her debt. I feel like it ended too soon and I wish it hadn’t.
I really like Cardella’s writing style because I feel like I am reading a novel rather than a memoir. There is a gap between the last chapter and the epilogue and I wish she would have written more about how she got her life together and what made her decide to move to London and then Paris (which the reader only discovers in the epilogue). Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book, it is a very fast read (it only took me 2 days) and I look forward to reading more from this author.
Cardella starts telling her story when she was a child watching her mom parade around the apartment in her palazzo pants and digging fashion magazines out of the bottom of grocery bags. Then, as a young woman how her life changed from a receptionist and struggling model to a fashion journalist and the lover of a wealthy businessman.
She is a very sympathetic character and I think many people can identify with her uncertainty about her future, what she “should” be doing with her life, and the pursuit of a career and lifestyle that will make her happy.
Through the downs in her life―her failed marriage and relationships and the great tragedy of her mother’s premature death, she used shopping to cope. However, after her break-up with her rich fiancé she could no longer afford the lifestyle she had become accustomed to and her shopping addiction began to ruin her financially. Cardella’s reflections about her situation became repetitive and onerous mostly because she kept coming to the same conclusions but she was either not strong enough to act or she didn’t know how. If these reflections could have been condensed I think it would have greatly improved the flow of the book.
While her career may have been on an upswing she couldn’t control herself or manage her money. She consistently held the admittedly naïve and mistaken belief after every purchase that this time it would be “the one” that would change things for her and turn her life around for the better. At the end of the book the author finally seeks help and starts to get her finances in order and pay down her debt. I feel like it ended too soon and I wish it hadn’t.
I really like Cardella’s writing style because I feel like I am reading a novel rather than a memoir. There is a gap between the last chapter and the epilogue and I wish she would have written more about how she got her life together and what made her decide to move to London and then Paris (which the reader only discovers in the epilogue). Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book, it is a very fast read (it only took me 2 days) and I look forward to reading more from this author.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2010
From My Blog...[return][return][return]Spanning four decades of fashion trends and spending, Avis Cardella's memoir Spent, speaks of her shopping addiction in a sad, often superficial and sometimes humorous manner, but more often not. Avis writes about the jobs and men in her life, both of which I lost count, her jet-setting life style and high-end shopping. A lot of the names and labels I did not recognize, however fashion has never been a high priority of mine, with that said, I did enjoy Spent from a sociological point of view. On a personal level I found Spent to be a very depressing memoir of a young woman who lived beyond her means, was surrounded by the rich and famous and who had more privileges than most are ever offered and yet not one of her so-called friends over all those years point out her problem, although to be fair the author does not really discuss her relationship disconnects so it is possible someone did suggest therapy. When she was younger, she went to counseling for depression, yet did not follow through, which appears to be a trend throughout her younger years. Spent is a memoir of the beautiful and wealthy, or those creating the illusion of being put together and having it all while on the inside being sad, insecure and lonely. While Spent is not an excessively uplifting memoir it is indeed an insightful one from a sociological point, a way to learn the top selling brands or hopefully an eye-opening experience for the many others, like the author, who have a spending addiction.
May 28, 2010
Avis Cardella loves fashion. When she was very young, she fell in love with name brands, beautiful clothes, and magazines. She saw her mother as the epitome of grace and beauty and wanted to be like her. While Avis was in her early twenties and in a tumultuous marriage, her mother died. What follows Avis is her choices in seeking to fill the hole left behind.
This memoir is beautifully and honestly written. She makes no excuses and places no blame on others. She makes choices based on her need to anesthetize her feelings about her loss. She becomes involved with rich, powerful men and enters the world of freelance fashion writing, while climbing the ladder of the rich and famous, spending all she has and then more while she seeks to numb her grief.
The author carefully addresses her different relationships and how they each served a purpose. Her downward spiral takes a couple of decades and her uphill climb is a process.
As our country is pushed into recession, "Spent" is written in a timely manner. Although full of designers the average woman may have heard in passing but would not be able to identify, the reader can identify with loss and searching for healing.
I really enjoyed the book. The author has a unique voice and writes with feeling and reason. She is able to connect her ideas and experiences clearly and finds healing and change within herself. She admits to slipping along the way, but her strength to admit her own choices are to blame is empowering.
This memoir is beautifully and honestly written. She makes no excuses and places no blame on others. She makes choices based on her need to anesthetize her feelings about her loss. She becomes involved with rich, powerful men and enters the world of freelance fashion writing, while climbing the ladder of the rich and famous, spending all she has and then more while she seeks to numb her grief.
The author carefully addresses her different relationships and how they each served a purpose. Her downward spiral takes a couple of decades and her uphill climb is a process.
As our country is pushed into recession, "Spent" is written in a timely manner. Although full of designers the average woman may have heard in passing but would not be able to identify, the reader can identify with loss and searching for healing.
I really enjoyed the book. The author has a unique voice and writes with feeling and reason. She is able to connect her ideas and experiences clearly and finds healing and change within herself. She admits to slipping along the way, but her strength to admit her own choices are to blame is empowering.
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