Laurie Notaro
In her first non-fiction novel, Laurie Notaro writes with her same funny, off-kilter and slightly neurotic voice she has recorded her life with in her fabulous autobiographical short stories. Although a bit slow to get off the ground, once she hits her stride the story takes off on its own strange little path. Notaro’s heroine Maye has just moved from Phoenix to a small town in Oregon and is desperate for just one friend like her – desperate to enter the town sewer pipe queen pageant. Notaro gives a very accurate description of a small college town, full of tree-huggers, left-over flower children and academics. For those of you from Madison, the “strange” folks in this books will seem remarkably familiar – like everyone you’ve ever met the Co-op. A fun, quick and quirky summer read.