A Year in Van Nuys
A Year in Van Nuys
Sandra Tsing Loh, a self-described neurotic, nonachieving, downwardly mobile “Dumpy,” has started to come out of denial over the fact that she does not live in Provence. Not only does she not live in Provence, she doesn’t even live in a nice part of Los Angeles. This upper-lower-middle-class suburb in the sun-swept grid of the San Fernando Valley, consistently ranked one of the worst places to live in America, whose night sky is flamed by a million fast-food neon signs and whose streets ar
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Mostly Great,
Sandra Tsing Loh’s latest book reads more like a series of her hilarious essays cloaked in the guise of a novel. The novel’s structure follows the character of “Sandra” through one year of her life as she struggles with writers block, perilously careens towards 36, and lives in of all places-horrors!-Van Nuys California. All of this is done with her bone dry humor in rare form, especially in the earlier half of the novel when she’s expounding on the Zone diet, and Bally’s Total Fitness. I loved the first two thirds, then felt it petered out a little by the end. Living in Los Angeles I found alot of the book really funny, although I don’t know how people outside the city would relate. However most people in their mid thirties will find her characters plight at “what am I doing with my life” syndrome very real, funny, and a little bit scary. If you’re a fan of David Sedaris, N.P.R., or just like to feel like you’re hip and in the know, you’d probably enjoy this.
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|Hilarious — I wish I could give it MORE than five stars!,
Have you ever had the experience of reading a book and, despite the fact that you’ve never met the author, felt that it was written JUST FOR YOU? Well, that’s what reading A YEAR IN VAN NUYS was like for me. Never mind that I’ve never set foot in Van Nuys; I could relate so much to Sandra, in her mid-30s, her youth passing her by, wondering, where’s that novel I should have written — heck, where’s my Oscar? I can’t remember the last time a book made me laugh so hard as I was nodding, “Yes, that’s so TRUE!” Sandra is the funniest woman in America and you don’t have to be a Southern Californian to love this book. I’d place her right up there with David Sedaris, Merrill Markoe and Al Franken in the pantheon of Authors Who Make Me Laugh Hysterically.
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|hysterical,
After spending uncounted months commuting from my place in suburbia-like Orange County, California to my boyfriend’s less than palatial abode in Van Nuys, this book came along. It had me laughing out loud from the first page (the zone-approved turkey) and wiping my eyes at the last. For anyone who’s ever thought they should write a memoir, or wanted to be like or murder a sibling, or, heck, anyone who’s wondered what the hell’s wrong with Californians… this is a great read. Just don’t try to read it on your birthday… with a handful of Tylenol PM’s.
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