Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood [Paperback]

Laurie Notaro (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2003

The author of the New York Times bestseller The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club tackles her biggest challenge yet: grown-up life.

In Autobiography of a Fat Bride, Laurie Notaro tries painfully to make the transition from all-night partyer and bar-stool regular to mortgagee with plumbing problems and no air-conditioning. Laurie finds grown-up life just as harrowing as her reckless youth, as she meets Mr. Right, moves in, settles down, and crosses the toe-stubbing threshold of matrimony. From her mother's grade-school warning to avoid kids in tie-dyed shirts because their hippie parents spent their food money on drugs and art supplies; to her night-before-the-wedding panic over whether her religion is the one where you step on the glass; to her unfortunate overpreparation for the mandatory drug-screening urine test at work; to her audition as a Playboy centerfold as research for a newspaper story, Autobiography of a Fat Bride has the same zits-and-all candor and outrageous humor that made Idiot Girls an instant cult phenomenon.

In Autobiography of a Fat Bride, Laurie contemplates family, home improvement, and the horrible tyrannies of cosmetic saleswomen. She finds that life doesn't necessarily get any easier as you get older. But it does get funnier.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Notaro (The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club) opens with enough dumped-by-loser-boyfriend stories that readers will share her skepticism when Good Guy finally appears. "He was an endangered species," Notaro writes. "[T]he only thing that could make him more valuable was if he were albino." Since Notaro can't keep Good Guy drunk and clueless forever, she switches to Plan B: frying cutlets, her major life skill. It works, and soon enough they're happily married. If this sounds mature and responsible, guess again. Other people might be able to buy a house, babysit their nephew, buy a new bra or seed their lawn without it being the least bit funny, but not Notaro. Consider the time she and her husband got a new puppy so untrainable it ate from the kitty litter box. Watching her husband get down on all fours and growl like a dog to show kitty who's in charge, Notaro comments, "Well, then, I'm not going to bother making dinner.... The cat just had a bowel movement big enough for the both of you." True, there's a lot of bathroom humor, but it's Notaro's odd take on the ordinary that's funniest. "H&R Block is really Practice Prison," a taste of what tax evaders can expect. Her sister using a breast pump looks like "a hybrid of Barbarella and a Holstein." And who else but Notaro can whisper to her (unwanted) cat as she crates him up for a trip to the vet: "if you see a bright, white light, run toward it"?
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Notaro's first book, The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club (2002), achieved cult status and became a surprise best-seller. Returning with another uproarious collection of personal essays from the dating front, Notaro proves that her first-time success wasn't a fluke. Detailing her trip down the bumpy road to matrimony, Notaro outrageously entertains with a sweetly skewed outlook on everything from breaded meats to baby wipes. Having endured boyfriends from hell and survived kamikaze-style dating, Notaro does the unthinkable by getting someone to fall in love with her! This, in Notaro's world, is not the equivalent of the Holy Grail. First, there are in-laws to impress and weddings to plan, both without inflicting bodily harm or doing jail time. Next come the challenges of permanent cohabitation, with its surprise revelations of untoward bodily functions and appearances. Finally, there are the joys of first-time home ownership and joint income-tax filing. Notaro tackles them all with the inimitable, acerbic wit and ruthless, self-deprecating candor that have deservedly earned her legions of loyal fans. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Villard; 1st edition (July 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037576092X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375760921
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurie Notaro was born in Brooklyn, New York, then spent the remainder of her formative years in Phoenix, AZ, where she created something of a checkered past. She is the New York Times Best-selling author of the humor memoirs The Idiot Girls Action Adventure Club, Autobiography of a Fat Bride, I Love Everybody and Other Atrocious Lies, We Thought You Would Be Prettier, Idiot Girls' Christmas, There's a Slight Chance I Might Be Going to Hell, The Idiot Girls and the Flaming Tantrum of Death, and Spooky Little Girl, which will be available April 13, 2001. She is a terrible typist, doesn't suffer Big Ikes very well, and lives under an assumed name in Eugene, Oregon where her neighbors believe she is writing about them, but she is not. She has a cute dog, a nice husband and misses Mexican food like a limb lost to diabetes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Laurie Notaro rules!, February 27, 2005

By 

Kathleen J. Bracken (Latham, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood (Paperback)

I'm a 20-something who picked up my first Laurie Notaro book at a bookstore browsing the humor section. I read a chapter and laughed in the store.

This book (as well as all Notaro's others) is consistently laugh out loud funny. I found her very relatable and easy to read. There is so much crap out there that's all too similar a read, and Notaro definitely distances herself from that. Her short chapters are a collection of humor, not another 20 or 30 something novel we've all read 80 different incarnations of.

I cannot wait for more from her. If you're a female sick of the other of the other typical girlie-novels out there, Notaro is a most refreshing change of pace. And she is totally hilarious.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book is Hilarious!!, September 2, 2003

By 

Kelly A. fuller "certified book nut" (Pennsville, New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood (Paperback)

Wow, what an amazing writer Laurie Notaro is! Why had I never heard of her? And when can is she going to release another book? I will be first in line at the bookstore when she does!(and don't try and weasel your way in front of me either...)

Autobiography of a Fat Bride is somewhat of a mixture of a short story format and a novel. The stories all tie together, but you can read them individually and still follow along perfectly. One hilarious, short chapter follows another.

The most amazing aspect of this book is just how real it is. Laurie says things that we all laugh about behind closed doors, when the "real us" is cut loose. Embarrassing "booger jokes" and "jelly roll bellies" are thrown together with mortage horror stories and new marriages, to make an altogether perfect novel. Laurie's formula of humor and frankness makes her one of my new favorite authors! Write more, Laurie! Please.....

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars very very funny new writer, June 26, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood (Paperback)

Notaro is a very promising new voice on the non fiction scene. This book is very funny but not quite as hilarious as her last one Idiot Girls. However that said, I read the book in a matter of days because I couldn't put it down. I kept drawing attention to myself in public places because I laughed out loud so much while reading it.

You don't need to be in the midst of planning a wedding to enjoy Notaro's sharp wit and unique observations. This is a great book to read on the beach this summer.