Thursday, December 4, 2008

Book: Falling into Manholes

Subtitle: The Memoir of a Bad/Good Girl

By: Wendy Merrill

I can't resist a memoir, especially one that reminds me of my own monk/party girl split. This book was easy to read in a day, in 15-minute intervals interspersed with doing chores. It was definitely on the depressing side, and the writing style was annoying because it felt like the author was just trying too hard to be cute and clever and show how many little plays on words she could invent for any given situation. It comes out very late in the book that her little word games are a coping mechanism, which almost makes the fact that she wrote practically an entire book of them even more depressing. I mean, I do long division in my head to cope with stress, but I wouldn't publish a book of it.

I wouldn't recommend this book unless you are a diehard memoir fan like me or have an interest in stories about recovery. One thing I would say is pick up the book if you are in the store, and look at the author's photo. She is a knockout, but as the book describes, she has major self-esteem issues. It just goes to show that it doesn't matter what you look like but how you feel about yourself. Yesterday at the dentist the assistant asked if I ever had braces or wanted them and I just said, "Who am I, Julia Roberts? I do not need perfectly straight teeth." I mean, ability to chew? Check. Let's move on to more important matters. But skip this book.

3 comments:

  1. Hilarious, Darx! I forgot about the long division thing--maybe you really should write a book about it! Thanks for the warning about the book and I'm so glad you can chew...

    ReplyDelete
  2. About self esteem, years ago I read an interview with Isabella Rossellini when she referred to 'days when I feel short and fat', and I thought well, maybe I look like Isabella Rossellini because I feel fat too?

    Well, not really, but I did find it helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Darx....I didn't know how to contact you but YES OH YES I would ADORE some new buttons from you! I have been using mine on many holiday creations so my stash is growing small. How shall we do this? Let me know!

    Charity

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.