Novels of Self

Laurie Notaro has got to be one of the bravest writers I know. Average Jane mentioned her on her blog, once upon a time, and I noted the name, curious to see what sort of stories Jane was reading. I am always surprised that people intentionally read non-fiction. I usually come across it by accident, as I had when I picked up Pledged. It was in the Lucky Day section and caught my eye. Ms Notaro writes tales of her life. The first book The idiot girls' action adventure club contains the tales that anyone who is single would normal wish to hide. Or, at least, pretend during the re-telling that it happened to a friend rather than yourself. I laughed outloud at her descriptions of the crazy corners of her life that most of us won't admit to having. The second book Autobiography of a Fat Bride didn't make me laugh outloud. I still enjoyed it, but not to the same degree that I did the first. Perhaps her tales of new marriage and growing old struck a little too close to home. Or, perhaps, it just wasn't as good as the first. At the time of this posting, these are the only books of Ms Notaro's that the Oshkosh Public library has. I plan to keep an eye out for others, should more crop up.