the Bitch in the house

mamakats’s review: “If MyOtherBoyfriend, Steven Colbert, can give his “thumbs up” to this work, then who am I to argue? Okay… let’s be serious, I am one who argues… a lot. So here it goes: I did love this book, and like the other reviewers, I laughed out loud and mightily at the jabs poked toward some serious historical moments. Yet, when I tried to share my amusement with my 14 year old son – who also enjoys a caustic wit and is a comprehensive thinker in his own right – I realized that what made this work so damn funny to me also made it boring as hell to him. That was a bummer! Most of the humor is specifically targeted at my age bracket and I felt, in describing the hilarity to my son over breakfast, I also needed to rely on VH1’s decade specials “I love the…” to aid his forced-guffaws and rolling of the eyes response. And while I may be dealing with the throes of teenage angst and displacement developmental stages of my teenaged son, I was supported in my theory when I realized that I was not misplacing my copy of the text while trying to finish reading it, the book was being absconded by my husband who was also as tickled as I. This is fun read with only a few slights against Oprah and Emma Goldman… oh, and Sylvia Plath which might reveal, to a savvy women’s studies major, that maybe Regan is a touch on the misogynist side of life, but not so far as to be totally offensive ; ) Overall, this is an awesome addition to our excremeditating™ library – and our guest bathroom has some of the finest: Mommy Laid an Egg; The Day My Butt Exploded; the Life 101 series; and How to Get Along With Your Parents Without Losing Your Mind – I think that for the most part, it will be our friends and houseguests who appreciate the effort much more than my kids and their friends. And I suppose that’s what GenX lit is all about: short-attention-span theater and self-absorbed humor. I can only say, “well done, Chris Regan, Well Done!””
Andrews McMeel Publishing (2008), Hardcover, 256 pages