He's just not that into you by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo

The No Excuses to Understanding Guys

He's Just Not That Into You is not a guide to dating. Aimed at women of a certain class and lifestyle and filling a slim 165 pages, the book serves merely as a calling card for its authors, five-years-out-of-the-dating-pool Sex and the City consultant Greg Behrendt and 41-years-old-and-single SatC executive story editor Liz Tuccillo. Presumably their participation in the creation of that callow and over-praised HBO television series is what qualifies Greg and Liz (the book always refers to its authors by their first names) to offer relationship guidelines: the book is titled after an episode of the show, and the design of the book is engineered to reinforce that connection.


The first eleven out of sixteen chapters have titles that begin with the phrase "He's Just Not That Into You If" and end with putative sins such as "He's Not Calling You," "He's Not Having Sex With You," "He's Having Sex With Someone Else," and "He Doesn't Want to Marry You." These chapter titles, and the relationship failures they indicate, tend to represent either the blindingly obvious or an intensification of traditional dating and relationship rules, often both at the same time. The book is addressed to urbane, heterosexual women looking for marriage. It's not exactly an under-served market, but it is only slightly narrower than the Sex and the City demographic.


Each of these chapter contains a brief description of the problem from Greg; two or three advice-column style questions from women, which Greg answers; a paragraph or two under the heading "It's so simple," which reinforces the chapter title; "Here's Why This One Is Hard," wherein Liz empathizes with reluctant readers and whines ad nauseum about how difficult her romantic life is; "This is What It Should Look Like," which discusses how an ideal situation would appear by contrast; and "Greg, I Get It," credited to one woman or another who finds the advice liberating. Three items end each chapter: "If You Don't Believe Greg," which always has '20 out of 20' or '100% of polled men' giving advice that stands by the chapter's rule; a redundant "What You Should Have Learned in This Chapter" summary; and a trivial but occasionally giggle-worthy "Workbook" section.

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