The Rules Do Not Apply

Well-written and intense but so intimate - as if you’ve somehow always known Ariel. It’s a love letter to life that - like many great love stories - dances round and ultimately ends in the land of “what could have been.” I hung on nearly every word, highlighted passage after beautiful passage and wanted to weep with the raw realness of it all. Bravo for one of the most authentic memoirs I’ve read in a long time.

Interesting memoir from a very self aware and talented writer. Read it in one sitting. The author writes w great candor about her varied and fascinating life experiences. Enjoyed her strong ability to place the reader in the moment

Beautifully written story of loss and grief. This book moved me to tears although the storyline is pretty simple, happens every day. I liked the writer's personal perspective on life, thought provoking. Recommended.

A well written book about an extremely privileged young woman. I cringed so many times while reading this. There is no doubt she suffered or is a talented writer, but woefully clueless that most people in America can only dream to have the life she has- thanks to people paying her way.(-she admits she started paying for herself at age 30!) She gets divorced- millions have, she miscarries which is awful and painful but again- millions of women suffer miscarriages for many reasons. The idea that the lights go on for this person at 38 that life is not fair is astounding to me- and no doubt to many of us who are not privileged by race or class. I am a liberal. The brand of liberalism she identifies with is the one in my opinion, kills the cause and makes most of America believe that Liberals live in Manhattan and summer in the Hamptons. The "elite" we are always hearing about. There are many points throughout her life where she might have gotten the idea earlier - like her parents divorce- but she speaks about as if it happened to someone else- like someone she is reporting on. I left wanting -

Levy states it perfectly in this piece that she is an exceptional writer who captures the moment, but she is not one to create a story from nothing.

This book reads like a series of vignettes tied together; each vignette is interesting and unique on its own. At times I wanted to cheer for her in her honest discoveries and at other times comfort her for the same reason.

Beautiful and heartbreaking. I had a moment about 1/3 of the way through when I was annoyed with the writer because it felt like she'd been deliberately vague in the early parts of the book about a key detail that makes the loss of her child more heartbreaking. But it's worth pushing through. Also, there is A LOT of adultery which I find hard to stomach, but it's such a wonderfully written book that I have to forgive that.

an excellent read- heartbreaking at times but Levy has the ability to make you FEEL the pain so many have to endure.
I haven't finished the book yet but I'm looking forward to it by the end of the day.

This was OK. The writing was good, but there were sections toward the end that seemed to drag on. Also, the writer often communicated that nothing could be worse than what happened to her. She suffered a tragedy; however, others have definitely been through worse and survived.

This book is a feast of beautiful writing. So many times I stop on a page and read it over and over because the words create such a strong picture that I don't want to leave. Some passages hit me square on the head, capturing feelings that I thought were uniquely mine. Then I read some lines that make me stop and say, "Oh, my gosh. I wish I'd written that."

I was caught up immediately in the book and bought it. At the end of the novel I have some afterthoughts. The person behind this beautiful, flowing prose is like an adolescent who starts to discover what real life is like. Therefore the story behind her life is underwhelming.

This book was an unexpected surprise for me. Ariel writes in a way that I found brilliant and that made me want to learn about her story from the moment I finished the preface.
I'm thankful that she had no fear of writing about the good and the bad things about her, about the good and bad (even awful) decisions she made, and last but not less important, I'm very thankful that she wrote about everything she went through: very happy moments, but also great great suffering.
I absolutely recommend this book: it makes you laugh, cry, get mad and it teaches/remembers you that you should value and love what and who you have, because one day it, or they, might not be there anymore and there will be nothing you can do about it.

This book was uninteresting, uninformative, negative, and did not seem that well written. The beginning of this book was interesting for a chapter or two when she was talking about her writing career, the stories she went after and the people she met. The rest of the book was a day by day account of her dysfunctional personal life, her insecurities, and her negative way of seeing things. There was a chapter at the end that I thought was a mistake because it seemed like a repeat paragraph to paragraph of a previous chapter. The last page was rather bleak so I gained nothing from reading this book. I wasted $5 on a used copy. At least I didn't pay the original retail price. This is writing that should have been left for her diary. I can not believe this is something a publisher would even publish but she holds an "award" winning writer title so obviously they think everything she writes must be golden.