A collection of witty anecdotes in which a 30-something woman
combines her divorced friends' stories with her own experiences of
marital breakdown to explore the chaotic divorce culture of the
late-20th century..Offering hilarious insight into the
entanglements of divorced couples, novelist Karbo ("Motherhood Made
a Man Out of Me", 2000, etc.) presents her vocabulary pertinent to
the divorcee dating scene, introducing terms like "divarried" (to
describe separated "couples where one still pays the other one's
rent, who still send each other birthday presents, whose shoulders
are perpetually available to cry on") and "Exatitus A" (a disease
that makes "you loathe while continuing to love the one who left
you, usually for someone else, and you alternate between wanting to
murder him and get him back"). Her live-in boyfriend, Matthew,
remained "divarried" to Claudia - a wrathful lunatic who purchased
livestock to combat depression and fetishized Winnie the Pooh
characters. Had Claudia not clogged Karbo's answering machine with
belligerent messages, threatened suicide, and destroyed Karbo's
underwear (after breaking into the couple's bedroom), this account
may not have been written. The author's comical depiction of the
"bovine" Claudia, although mean-spirited, seems well deserved: "For
months after The Underwear Episode, Claudia behaved like a
nine-year-old girl angling for a pony." Much of the tension between
Karbo and her boyfriend transpired because of his reluctance to
quash Claudia's intrusions. Between insightful reflections on this
tumultuous love triangle, Karbo amuses with keen observations of
her friends' marital mishaps, showing us nerve-wracking scenarios
in which Brady Bunch - sized families are haunted by the father's
two ex-wives. Occasionally there is a depressing glimpse of the
hapless divorcee's unfortunate financial realties. Still, Karbo
bounces us back to laughter with her outrageous interpretations of
the historical divorces of Picasso and King Henry VIII..A
laugh-out-loud read that will delight divorced readers and children
of broken homes alike.. (Kirkus Reviews)
What does your family consist of? Stepdaughter? Stepson? Ex-wife?
Ex-husband? This book contains stories of a group of women who
gather periodically to blow off steam, and have a few laughs about
the impossible and stubbornly persistent phenomenon that is the
ex-relationship.
General
Imprint: |
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
August 2001 |
Authors: |
Karen Karbo
|
Dimensions: |
216 x 135mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Paperback - Trade / Trade
|
Pages: |
256 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-7475-5424-0 |
Categories: |
Books >
Fiction >
General & literary fiction >
Modern fiction
|
LSN: |
0-7475-5424-2 |
Barcode: |
9780747554240 |
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