Dear Girls Above Me: Inspired by a True Story

Author: McDowell, Charles

Brand: CROWN

Color: Multicolor

Binding: paperback

Format: Deckle Edge

Number Of Pages: 288

Release Date: 04-06-2013

Details: Product Description
Based on the wildly popular Twitter feed Dear Girls Above Me, a roman à clef about how thinking like a couple of girls turned one single guy into a better man. When Charlie McDowell began sharing his open letters to his noisy upstairs neighbors—two impossibly ditzy female roommates in their mid-twenties—on Twitter, his feed quickly went viral. His followers multiplied and he got the attention of everyone from celebrities to production studios to major media outlets such as Time and Glamour.  Now Dear Girls breaks out of the 140-character limit as Charlie imagines what would happen if he put the wisdom of the girls to the test.  After being unceremoniously dumped by the girl he was certain was “the one,” Charlie realized his neighbors’ conversations were not only amusing, but also offered him access to a completely uncensored woman’s perspective on the world. From the importance of effectively Facebook-stalking potential girlfriends and effortlessly pulling off pastel, to learning when in the early stages of dating is too presumptuous to bring a condom and how to turn food poisoning into a dieting advantage, the girls get Charlie into trouble, but they also get him out of it—without ever having a clue of their impact on him.
Review
"By introducing us to the memorable American folk heroes known as the Girls Above Him, Charlie McDowell sneakily does one better: he introduces us to Charlie McDowell, the hapless, wit-soaked everyman who is attempting to bridge the gap between the sexes like a very skilled, and freaking funny, anthropologist of the Kardashian era."

—Lena Dunham
 
"If any one of us were in Charlie's situation, we likely would have committed murder. We would have killed these two girls and their vapid musings. Yet Charlie and his big heart somehow derive humor, meaning, and maybe even a little sympathy for these girls and their generation of throaty babblers."

—Mark Duplass
 
"Charlie McDowell is a wonderful writer.  I have gotten his emails."

—Zach Galifianakis

About the Author
CHARLIE MCDOWELL is a filmmaker and comedy writer. He made his directorial debut in 2014 with The One I Love, starring Mark Duplass and Elizabeth Moss. He studied directing at the American Film Institute and owns his own production company, Cloudbreak Productions. @charliemcdowellwww.deargirlsaboveme.com
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
CHAPTER ONE

“OMG, if someone ever writes a book about me, it should be called A Beautiful Mind,” said a voice still filled with the glory of having uttered some profound cliché.

“I think that’s already a book,” I responded out loud, to nobody. “And a movie.”

“And I’ll write the sequel, A Beautiful Fashion Sense. Fashion is totally my seventh sense. My sixth sense is seeing ghosts wearing last fall’s line,” chirped another voice in keeping with the enthusiasm.

I glared at my ceiling fan, hoping that this wasn’t going to turn into a trilogy. These voices, the voices of the girls who lived above me, had become the Greek chorus of my life. As a guy not new to city life, I expected the intrusions and boundary violations that occur when one lives with only a few inches of wood and stucco between himself and his neighbors. Random footsteps, muffled television programs, maybe even the occasional sentence fragment. But I most definitely did not expect to be the unwilling audience of a twenty-four-hour slumber party between the Winston Churchill and Benjamin Franklin of the 90210 generation.

But let’s back up a bit. To a more innocent time. Before the girls rearranged every idea I’d once had about life and love, and the biggest challenge in my daily routine was walking my dog.

I stood on the freshly cut lawn of my apartment building and looked around to make sure no one was within earshot. There was the girl across the street chatting on her cell phone, but she seemed much too preoccupied by the argument she was having with he

EAN: 9780307986337

Package Dimensions: 8.0 x 5.1 x 2.0 inches

Languages: English