Book Club: Things I Can't Explain Chapters 1 & 2

Things I Can't Explain 

by Mitchell Kriegman

Based on the popular Nickelodeon television show Clarissa Explains It All which was created by Mitchell Kriegman, Things I Can't Explain is the continued story of Clarissa Darling.  When we last saw her on the show she was in her late teens navigating life in her suburban Ohio home, now we find her in her late twenties navigating life in Manhattan.

The show ran on SNICK or Saturday Night Nickelodeon, from March 1991 to October 1994 a total five seasons and 65 episodes.  A pilot called Clarissa was shot in 1995 for CBS but wasn't picked up.  In that show Clarissa had just moved to New York and got a job for a New York City newspaper.

Chapter 1
We find Clarissa living in New York City looking for a job as the newspaper she was working, The New York Post has closed down.  She narrates us through her day after leaving a job interview to be a faculty adviser for a private school newspaper, it didn't go well.  While riding the train to get coffee Clarissa breaks down her definition if a micro-relationship and who around the city she has them with.  She also introduces us to who her current friends are.  To her the most important micro-relationship is that of the CCG: Cute Coffee Guy who works at the coffee stand in the lobby of the former New York Post building and when she arrives at the end of the chapter he is not there.

Thoughts
This did feel like a Clarissa Explains it all episode, she is the narrator and we are seeing things from her perspective.  The pictures in the book remind me of the pictures that would appear on screen as Clarissa sat and broke the fourth wall talking directly to the camera on the show.  One page has a map of her coffee places, clearly the most important thing for her to track in Manhattan.  I'm not a coffee lover, but I know people who are and that is definitely and important thing for them.  I was surprised about her reaction to hearing the assumed 7th or 8th graders talking so explicitly about sex, I'm not saying I condone it but it doesn't surprise me.

Chapter 2
Clarissa is devastated that CCG is not manning his coffee cart and some young blonde girl is, Clarissa is panicked that he isn't there and instantly jealous of the young girl, Clementine.  She was just filling in for him while he made a phone call.  CCG explains all this when he returns and breaks protocol asking her name and just as she is about to answer her parents arrive.

Thoughts
Clarissa has some serious issues with sex.  First off she has an issue with Clementine's eyebrow piercing and large tongue piercing, referring to it as a rite of passage and sexual turn on for some people and then referring to it as a choking hazard.  Later in the chapter when she's trying to psych herself up to flirt with CCG she makes reference to the "snotty little seventh grade slut-ling."  This was released and I believe takes place in 2015 I'm surprised she's such a prude.


Check out my buddy Brandon's thoughts on these chapters here: Book Club

Until Next Time