The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club

June 3, 2002
This collection of columns, originally written for the Arizona Republic, details Notaro's daring exploits and comical mishaps as she matures from wild teenager to disheveled adult. Her vignettes are humorous if unoriginal. "The Useless Black Bra and the Stinkin'-drunk Twelve-step Program" is a classic drinking story, complete with the lost friend who is eventually found in a neighbor's front yard wearing only a bra. This hard-drinking, chain-smoking approach to partying inevitably leads to some punishing hangovers; in one extreme case, Notaro is mistaken for a homeless person while en route to jury duty in "Going Courtin'." Not surprisingly, disregard for her appearance diminishes her chances of fulfilling her mother's dream and bringing home from the trial a "balding, sexually repressed twenty-seven-year-old attorney strangled in a Perry Ellis necktie." Notaro's QVC-addicted mother is predictably in opposition to and embarrassed by her daughter's bad-girl antics. In "Waking Angela Up," Notaro compares herself to Janeane Garofalo, and there indeed are clear similarities in the blunt self-deprecation that fuels both women's humor. Notaro, however, lacks the biting originality of her more famous counterpart. In "This Is a Public Service Announcement," Notaro rails against public restroom users, including "the hoverer" and "the talker." Her existing fans will agree with these sentiments, while new readers might simply shrug, thinking, "Who doesn't
hate those characters?" Agent, Harvey Klinger Inc.

May 15, 2002
Squires, a Lawrence scholar and professor of English at Virginia Tech, and wife Talbot, coeditor with him of a projected edition of Frieda's letters, have written a joint biography of two distinctive individuals as well as a portrait of a marriage. They examine in great detail the lives of Lawrence and Frieda, showing how their different personalities were nevertheless blended into a partnership that endured despite arguments, occasional infidelities, and periods of separation. Though Lawrence's major novels and short stories are examined closely, the criticism focuses more on how the fiction reflects the couple's lives and experiences rather than on the works' literary devices or themes. The section on Lady Chatterley's Lover is especially illuminating. The many illustrations add to this general-interest book. While it does not supplant previous biographies of the couple, such as Brenda Maddox's D.H. Lawrence: The Story of a Marriage, this book's sympathy and understanding of the Lawrences' lives and the use of many unpublished letters as well as personal interviews contributes to its usefulness and readability. Recommended for large public libraries. Morris A. Hounion, New York City Technical Coll. Lib., Brooklyn

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