Susan Jane Gilman and I are best friends. She doesn’t know it, but we have established a total parasocial relationship. This is the third book of hers I read in a row and am not planning to stop here. She’s incredibly good! Reading her books makes me extremely happy!
Now, I must recognize that Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress may not be a book for every occasion. This is a feel-good book. If you need something to feed your adrenaline addiction, start by “Donna Has Left the Building.”
As a feel-good book, Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress is not a sappy kittens, Jesus, and orphans adorning their mother’s tomb with flowers story while they rescue their estranged father. It is more like a joint and a beer with your best friend while you complain about all the douchebags in the world with big laughs and listen to music from three decades ago. It’s warm, cozy, and “safe” book, in the sense that it makes you feel part of something bigger. It is the perfect book if you’re feeling a little droopy and you just need a friend to make you smile until it hurts and to feel appreciated.
You will enjoy every single line, but Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress is not a page-turner. Every chapter is a self-contained anecdote that you should savor slowly. You will find yourself going back a few pages to reread aloud that paragraph that made you laugh for someone else and never in a hurry to figure out what happens next. You will savor every single page.
You could read this book in a few days or a few months. There’s no rush to finish it. It took me exactly ten days. It is like the Asterix or Lucky Luke comic books you read as a child—for grownups. Silly, yet human, slightly frivolous, and utterly entertaining. Slow books are my favorite books because you can revisit them often and never get bored.
Hypocrite in a Pouffy Dress is very personal. Not personal in the sense that it will make you feel uncomfortable by revealing a little too much, but personal in the sense that you will feel as if you were best friends with the author, therefore my infatuation. As a memoir, the self-deprecating humor reminded me of David Sedaris, but Gilman is never too dry or too melancholic.
Gilman is always positive, without being annoyingly positive, and her self-deprecating jokes are never tiring. Gilman’s drama is often exaggerated; however, the exaggeration works because you understand what she means exactly. When Gilman tells more serious anecdotes, for instance, being beaten up, bullied, or having her heart broken, she turns the story into a funny life lesson you can laugh about.
Finally, while you will recognize Gilman’s marvelous storytelling skills in every one of her books, so far, every book I have read has been very different. No money formulas here. Gilman’s just honest, positively reinterpreting the past, treating her readers as pals, without riddles or overwritten metaphors only a few enlightened will understand. Brava!
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