I've heard a lot about the eventual death of newspapers, enough to think the doom sayers will prove right. But not soon, I hope - I love newspapers. (Yes, the paper kind.) For a lot of reasons.
When I finished Laurie Notaro's there's a (slight) chance i might be going to hell,* I realized another reason why I love newspapers: it's the book reviews! I've never been steered wrong by one.
Generally, I read the reviews in the Plain Dealer, and the one on slight chance a few months ago was spot on. The reviewer said the book was sorta funny, sorta wacky, but not the year's best title, even by smarter-than-average chick lit standards. She was right. She also said the title's main character, Maye Roberts, was good company through all 302 pages - and she was right about that, too.
Maye Roberts happily accompanies her university-professor hubby when he moves from overheated Phoenix to lush and lovely Spaulding, Washington, only to find out it is possible for a town to be too green, and organic jelly donuts may in fact cause brain damage.
Maye, who is no wall flower, has a heck of a time finding a friend in town. Apparently, she's not old enough, vegan enough or hippie enough, and she has a tragicomic knack for turning little white lies into full-blown scenes worthy of the (Spaulding) nightly news.
The surefire way to make friends in Spaulding, Maye learns, is to enter the Sewer Pipe Queen Pageant. So she does.
The Miami Herald's review said Notaro "may be the funniest writer in this solar system," and while I seriously doubt it (and I think Herald guest columnist Dave Barry might disagree, too) she IS funny.
Sure, I could quibble about the too-neatly-wrapped-up-ending (no, she doesn't win the pageant) or the grammatical mishaps here and there (please, nobody look for mine!) but the fact is Maye proved fabulous company on a four-hour car trip. And for creating her, I believe Notaro earns a spot in reader's heaven.
*Powell's has it for $9.50 compared to Amazon's $11.16
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