Manual for Normal [Paperback]

Rebecca McEldowney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2005

Because life is more brilliant and more brutal than any of us imagined.

Even before her mother's death, Lubba James was different. Now she's worse. She drowns herself in fairytales. Lets her imagination run away with her. Doesn't know how to mourn "appropriately."

Driven made or driven to escape, Lubba isn't sure. But she knows she has to get away from her insufferable sister and overwhelmed father. Lubba begins her own quest to discover what "normal" looks like. And in reality, it's not very pretty.

A burned-out copy and his hair-trigger sniffer dog. A homicide victim trapped alive. What's left of a woman who's lost her child. Lubba's path leads to them all, and as she travels deeper, sees more, she realizes that life can be more wicked than any witch, and richer than happily-ever-after.

In the end, Lubba must decide not what's normal, but whether or not she cares.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rebecca McEldowney has been an actress, theatrical director and forensics science book editor. She lives in Florida with her family.

Product Details

• Paperback: 261 pages
• Publisher: Windstorm Creative; 1 edition (February 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590921208
• ISBN-13: 978-1590921203
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,735,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rebecca McEldowney has worked as an actress, theatrical director, and acquisitions editor for a major reference publisher. She obtained her MA in creative writing under the guidance of Johnny Payne, author of the bestselling Voice and Style. The recipient of the Florida Stonzek Award for best new play (Abandon All Hope: A Comedy), she has participated in the Sewannee
Writer's Workshop under the direction of Romulus Linney. She's a genre-jumper, publishing three novels: A Manual for Normal (a bildungsroman), Guardian Devils (a metaphysical comedy), and Soul of Flesh (an historical fiction about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution). Please visit her website at www.rebeccamceldowney.com for more information and reviews.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars manual for normal, March 6, 2005

By 

William Bell "William Bell" (Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manual for Normal (Paperback)

In "Manual for Normal", Rebecca has expertly brought a group of flawed charactors to her pages. Her creative skills are unmatched by dimension. There are assortments of conflict and many twists and turns. Don't look for the nebulous. It is a good read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Bullfinch would be proud, May 10, 2005

By 

Steven B. Karch (Berkeley, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Manual for Normal (Paperback)

First time author Rebecca McEldowney has produced a very credible book that is definitely worth reading. Manual for Normal is a coming of age book, though unlike one that might have been written just a few decades ago. The cynical Holden Caufield, for example, saw the world being destroyed by those questing for power and money. Lubba James, MacEldowney's young teenage protagonist, is more puzzled than cynical, and she has some problems separating truth from reality. What both Holden and Lubba have in coming is that they see themselves as misfits. The truths Lubba learns in the course of her adventures are not always pretty ones. Mothers die, father are weak, a sister is cruel, the law ambiguous, and its agents, the two police officers who play an important role in her life, are deeply flawed, and even more unhappy than Lubba. But Lubba is not an updated version of Holden Caulfield. Holden had psychological problems. Lubba is thought to be deeply deranged, perhaps requiring hospitalization. Like Holden, Lubba is hard put to explain why so many bad things are happening in the world and, more specifically to her. Lubba copes by reading fairytales (the author leaves no doubt of her intent - she even mentions that Bullfinch is one of Lubba's favorite books). McEldowney uses the power of myth to help Lubba come to terms with, and even understand, what she is experiencing, though sometimes it is hard to tell whether or not Lubba is living out her life in a fantasy world, or just using the fantasies to help get through the day. Very little happens in a way that Lubba might have hopped, but that doesn't mean there is no happy ending. After all, fairy tales are not just stories about evil monsters eating children. Some fairy tales have happy endings, and some have morals. The very sympathetic protagonist of this story has both.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, March 30, 2005

By 

Dawn Perlmutter - See all my reviews

This review is from: Manual for Normal (Paperback)

Lubba is reminiscent of J.D. Salinger's Zooey Glass, a teenage prodigy whose intelligence makes growing up particularly difficult. Lubba has extraordinary insights into human nature but lacks the maturity and confidence required to have faith in her own observations. She takes refuge in magical tales and overcomes tragedy with her natural instinct for sacred places. This is a story of innocence, alienation, disillusionment, and triumph, a private view into the mind of a sensitive yet perceptive teenager trying to achieve the fictional existence of `normal' while immersed in harsh reality.