That’s what Laurie Notaro said, anyway. I only wish I had thought of that title before she did; maybe then I would be a best-selling novelist instead of Santa’s Little Volunteer.
Nevertheless, I have not written a book (not a decent, published one anyway), and so posting daily blather on this blog will have to suffice for now. And since I am on my deathbed with this non-pregnancy related illness, all you get for the day is a book review.
There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might be Going to Hell, a novel by Laurie Notaro, caught my interest before I even opened the cover. I mean, look at the title. Is there anything that could describe my life more closely? I think not. It’s a fairly easy read—no deep thinking involved, which was perfect for a recent road trip I took to Oregon with Poor Kyle. He enjoyed it as well, since I could not seem to keep from bursting out with laughter and comments like, “Listen to this!” or “That’s so clever!” {And, might I add, laughing out loud while reading is rather a rare occurrence for me; I tend to keep it bottled up inside.} He was a captive audience, and had no choice but to act amused.
I feel like the book was written for me: It’s about a woman—Maye—living in Phoenix (ahem) with a well-established network of close friends (ahem) who packs up with her husband and moves to a small town in the northwest (ahem?). The only real difference in the plot line is that her new town is full of hippies and mine—Mayberry—is not. Sadly. I get a kick out of hippies.
Oh. And one more difference: Maye works tirelessly throughout the course of the book to make friends, whereas I have striven (and more or less succeeded) to keep myself unattached and friendless in my new town. Other than that, we’re spitting images.
Mae finds herself in the middle of countless hilarious predicaments throughout her journey to make new friends, culminating in a “Sewer Pipe Queen” pageant, which ends with an uproarious finale.
The only downside to the book is that I found myself consantly reading “maybe” when I was supposed to read the main character’s name, “Maye.” I found it distracting, since I was continually re-reading sentences, but this is more my own problem than Laurie Notaro’s.
Favourite quotations (mostly because they seemed literally written about my life and my opinions):
“You can move your furniture, you can move your books, you can move your underwear, but you can’t move your whole life.” p. 13
“Small towns are sometimes like that; familiarity runs high, while regard for personal space is low, if nonexistent.” p. 18
“‘Oh, goody, a sh*tty spoken-word artist,’ Maye whined to herself. ‘I hate spoken-word people. It’s all fun and games until a poet shows up and sucks the life out of everything fun in six seconds flat.'” p. 273
For a quick, amusing read, check it out.
I give it SIX STARS out of SEVEN, see?: ******
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