Reviewed March 5, 2006.
Crown Publishers, New York,
2005. 273 pages.
Available at Sembach Library
(MCN 818 BRO).
What could be
more
practical? A flip book with a Wedding
Planner on one side and a Divorce Guide on the other!
When this
came in, both my
other co-workers who were familiar with the Sweet Potato Queens
demanded to get it next. Of course, they
bowed to my superior claim that I am the only one at the library who
actually
might need a Divorce Guide in the near future.
Unlike The
Divorce Remedy,
or How
One of You Can Bring the Two of You Together, this book does
NOT
encourage you to hang in there and stick it out and turn the divorce
around. Perhaps I shouldn’t have read
it, since I still hope my divorce won’t happen. This
book is irreverent and rude in spots, but it does one
fantastic
thing: It makes you laugh!
I won’t
review the Wedding
Planner, though it’s also full of hilarious bits. The
Divorce Guide shows you how to make the
best of the event. Let’s just say
they’re not complimentary toward your ex-husband (called the Gloom). They teach you how to be a queenly Glide as
you glide on to a new life.
They have
practical advice
such as: Don’t do anything with your
hair, but you should “start planning and acquiring the new wardrobe
you’ll need
for your fabulous new life.” Another
good tip is: “Try to limit the number of
people you whine to each day about your ex to no more than six. It’s also a good idea to put a cap on the
amount of time you allow yourself to expend on such whinage.”
She gives you
plans and a
song list and recipes for your Divorce Party. One
way to look on the bright side, right? Although
I don’t advocate this approach
myself, I had to laugh when she said, “Many Queens around the world
have
abandoned the idea of marriage altogether and instituted a program of
Catch and
Release instead. This makes very good
sense to me. I myownself just purely
love to fish.”
However,
there is some advice
mixed in that I did want to take to heart: “You
may lose that relationship, but don’t lose the lesson
of it—it’s
yours to keep. If you learn from it, it
was successful, regardless of the outcome. I
hope this book will help you avoid divorces, but if it
doesn’t, I hope
the laughing helps you heal.”
This book
helped me regain my
sense of humor. Come to think of it,
people planning a wedding might need exactly the same thing.
Reviews of other books by Jill Conner Browne:
The Sweet Potato Queens'
Field Guide to Men
The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love
Fat Is the New 30
Copyright © 2006 Sondra Eklund. All
rights reserved.
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Book Reviews by Sondra Eklund
