Breakouts 1999: A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing

A Girl’s Guide To Success

There are the best-selling page-turners. The novels you trudge through because they’re ”good for you.” And then there are the soul bibles; the books that compel you to buy a copy for every friend you have. Such was Melissa Bank’s debut, The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing, seven short stories about one romantically challenged single white female. In Jane Rosenal, Bank, 39, has created a heroine for our time, a chick with Bridget Jones‘ wry humor, Ally McBeal’s poignancy, and Sex and the City‘s bawdy bite. ”It was kind of scary,” says Bank of 15 weeks on the New York Times best-seller list and a movie deal with Francis Ford Coppola. ”You write for a long time in your dark room and all of a sudden there’s a bright light on you.” Holed up again writing a new novel, she did find time to bask in vindication’s sweet glow. ”A man I’d gone out with once four years ago sent roses after the book came out.” She laughs. ”Funny, there was no call after the date.”