Events
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Start: 7:30 pm
Judith Newman's New York Times Review Based on his widely read columns for The New Yorker, Ian Frazier’s uproarious
first novel, The Cursing Mommy’s
Book of Days, centers on a profoundly memorable character, sprung from an
impressively fertile imagination. Structured as a daybook of sorts, the book
follows the Cursing Mommy -- beleaguered wife of Larry and mother of two boys,
twelve and eight -- as she tries (more or less) valiantly to offer tips on how
to do various tasks around the home, only to end up on the ground, cursing,
surrounded by broken glass. Her voice is somewhere between Phyllis Diller’s and
Sylvia Plath’s: a hilariously desperate housewife with a taste for swearing and
large glasses of red wine, who speaks to the frustrations of everyday life.
Frazier has demonstrated an astonishing ability to operate
with ease in a variety of registers: from On the Rez, an investigation into the lives of modern day Oglala
Sioux written with a mix of humor, compassion, and imagination, to Dating Your Mom, a sidesplitting
collection of humorous essays that imagines, among other things, how and why
you might begin a romance with your mother. Here, Frazier tackles another genre
with his usual grace and aplomb, as well as an extra helping of his trademark wicked
wit. The Cursing Mommy’s failures and weaknesses are our own -- and Frazier
gives them a loving, satirical spin that is uniquely his own.
"Ian Frazier is not a mommy, and as his best friend I can swear
that he is not a curser in any way, yet this book, The Cursing Mommy's Book of
Days, is the funniest book I have ever read on the subject of moms and the
crazy bliss that makes up their life. Being and Nothingness? Read this instead,
for it is even funnier than Frazier's other book: African-American Women
Writers in the Diaspora: A Reconsideration of Morrison, Walker, Dove, and
Frazier.”
-- Jamaica
Kincaid
Ian Frazier is the author of quite a lot of remarkable
books, including Travels in Siberia,
Coyote v. Acme, The Fish’s Eye, and Great Plains. A frequent
contributor to The New Yorker, he
lives in Montclair, New Jersey.
Reserved seating tickets available with the purchase of a
copy of The Cursing Mommy’s Book of Days
at The Booksmith, while seats last!
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