3 out of 4 stars
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It's been said that everyone has a story, that many people's lives would make great movies. While some of the stories - like my own - would be tragedies with very few light moments, others would be comedies, full of funny moments, like Sheli Ellsworth's. In her book, The Psychoanalysis of Everyday Life; Sometimes I Pee When I Laugh, Ms. Ellsworth shares her "collection of humorous stories" in the hopes that we, the readers, can identify with "some of the absurdity we call life".
From the first anecdote, a funny little tale called plump shiny lips anyone? (lack of capitalization of the titles are the author's), I was chuckling and trying to imagine myself in the strange situations in which Sheli and her family find themselves. In the aforementioned yarn, the author bemoans the curse of having chipped lips when she'd love nothing more than to have plump, kissable puckers. Of the other 24 tidbits, my favorites were the pumpkin master, conejo chronicles, and the great colon caper. The first story tells of the time that her art-challenged husband took their child to a father-daughter pumpkin carving contest, returning with their own funny tales to tell. In the second yarn, the author tells of living in the land of bunnies and trying to replant her grass; her attempts to rid her lawn of the furry "little four-footed terrorists" had me rolling with gales of laughter. The last tale I mentioned tells of the author's colonoscopy travails. I myself turned 50 this year and have already put mine off for 2 years or more, and this story did not make me rush to schedule one, though it did make me chortle many times. Other highlights for me included ladybug lesson, remember the alamo, and the walnut polish, while the pug, the button, the insanity, and closet of guilt made me nod my head, wondering if I'd secretly written those chapters myself. You'll have to read the tome yourself to find out the specifics of these yarns that I mentioned.
I absolutely loved the author's voice while relating these tales. It was like I was in the studio audience while she, microphone in hand, regaled the audience. Even though the tales were all short, most taking up no more than 5 or 6 pages, she did a great job illustrating everything as well. I could fully picture all of the shenanigans that she and her kin were living through. Talk about 'fly on the wall' moments!
Sadly, the grammar wasn't nearly as spot-on. In addition to punctuation errors, the book had several compound words split in two and vice-versa as well as missing words. The author also occasionally lapsed into different verb tenses, slightly interrupting the flow. I therefore strongly urge Ms. Ellison to have the book edited so it can be an "A+" in form as well as content. It is due to these typographical errors only that I am forced to give The Psychoanalysis of Everyday Life 3 out of 4 stars.
With that being said, I am delighted to recommend this book to pretty much everyone. There's no graphic violence or sexual situations, so even the young can enjoy some of the tales, though they may want to skip that colon one that I mentioned. The only readers I can foresee not liking this would be those who have trouble seeing the humor in life or laughing at themselves.
"To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone." - Reba McEntire
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The Psychoanalysis of Everyday Life
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