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Revenge of the Paste Eaters: Memoirs of a Misfit

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Revenge of the Paste Eaters is a collection of witty, insightful and heartwarming essays about the author's life. Cheryl Peck pokes fun at herself, her family, her Midwestern upbringing, her insecurities and even her cat, but there is no malice in her words, and some of us can relate to the topics she chooses.

In "a gathering of porcupines," she tells us how her family communicates: "...writing always includes the ability to edit or erase before the final result is visible to the world...talking is a matter of just throwing yourself out there as you come, naked and unpolished, trusting your soul to the whims of the gods. The world is full of people who are entirely comfortable doing that. None of these people are related to me." The essay, "the epidemic" hit home for me as a Midwesterner as she defines one: "... my people live by three simple rules: work hard, wait for your turn, if you feel a need to talk about something, go plow a field until the need passes."

The collection of essays is a quick and lively read; most of them lasting one to six pages. No topic is untouchable, but Peck spends more than one story on her mother and her untimely death, her cat, growing old gracefully, her grandmothers, and her weight. She also reveals her coming out process in "how I came out," by writing, "It took me three weeks of conscious practice to use the word `lesbian' in a sentence that did not also include the word `not'. It took me six months to make a deliberate effort to meet another lesbian...''

While Peck repeats some themes and jumps around to different topics in no particular order, the anecdotes are fresh and down to earth. They are real and stripped of any pretense. She also doesn't take herself too seriously for the most part, but the stories are thoughtful, especially when discussing her mother whom she misses, as told in "my mentor."

Revenge of the Paste Eater is the kind of book some of us wish we had the guts to write, exposing our imperfect selves and letting others laugh at us. It takes a courageous author to bear herself honestly for all to read. Cheryl Peck does this with grace and panache. For anyone wanting a good laugh and words that make one pause, this delightful book is well worth the time.

Ah! The paste eaters. Those misfit children who everyone delights to torment.

Cheryl Peck's new memoirs feel like letters from an old friend. From the reliability of old cars to strange psychic encounters and the nature of cats to the many uses of Dremels, she never fails to delight with tales from her life.

Peck mixes stories of her childhood with stories of her present. She relates the struggle of growing up with a hypercritical mother and a distant father. She also tells about her unending challenge to fit into an unforgiving world.

"Shopping" tells how for years her entire wardrobe fit in a WWII parachute bag. Even after attaining a job in a welfare office, she still dressed as close to the bottom of the fashion chain as possible. Shortly after the publication of her first book, a friend locks her in a clothing store with two clerks who wait on her hand and foot.

In "Fatso" we get a taste of what it's like to be discriminated against because of size. Peck provides a list of bad manners she has been forced to endure by denying that she, as a middle class white person, has ever experienced any of them. It is one of the most thought provoking chapters of the book.

"The Kitten," perhaps the most moving of her memoirs, falls near the end. It relates a moment from her childhood that gives insight into her person and neatly ties together the rest of the stories.

At times, Peck comes across as whiny. Her feminist sermonizing and constant complaining can hamper enjoyment of the book.

However, her writing style is virtually flawless. Each story from the book grabs our interest and refuses to let go until the last word. But we can't stop there. Completing one chapter leads us to desire the next.

This book has been sitting in my bathroom for well over a year now, because I have not been able to bring myself to read it anywhere but when I am trapped in the aforementioned room. Despite that, I am still about thirty pages from being done with it. The book is extremely tedious, and the author tries too hard to impress the reader with her wit and sarcasm to the point that it is painful to read. Stories that could have been amusing instead become the literary equivalent of the dead horse being flogged, turned into a paste, then eaten. My advice: steer clear of.

I was excited for this book but became disappointed as I continued to read. It seemed a little tedious and not quite as funny as I expected.

The book is organized into essays that read like really well-written blog posts. The author is lots of fun, and some of the stories she offers are both poignant and hilarious. Some of it can be a bit repetitive, but not so much as to annoy. If you're looking for some light reading and you're fairly openminded, you should definitely go for this one.

I'm male, straight and nearly 12 years older than Ms. Peck, but I recognized plenty of situations in her memoir that gave me smiles, sighs or in a few spots, large laughs. I have not read her first book, but among the topics she gets right in this one are psychics, early '60's Ford products, cat thoughts, elementary school cruelties, junior high coed ballroom dancing classes and pink eye. I grew up skinny, poor and shy in New Jersey, mystified by my parents, out of sync with siblings, comforted by public libraries, recorded music and cats and dogs. This book is an uneven series of brief essays, some intended to be funny, some more serious, but most worth reading. The author reveals herself to be someone you can imagine having as a good neighbor or a good friend. She's a state human services worker in the upper Midwest, and I believe there are other and even better books to come from her remembered life and her imagination.

Revenge of the Paste Eaters: Memoirs of a Misfit

Hilarious! I would go out of my way to go to her next book signing and hope that she'd at least acknowledge me (I'm a small person) ... hey maybe she'd sign my tshirt! Loved her cat stories although I'm not a cat lover and snippets on menapause. I say snippets because anyone going through this time can only handle snippets or else by the time they're done reading they'll have forgotten what was said the paragraph before and have to reread it! And hasn't everyone over the age of 40 tasted paste???

Cheryl Peck's used to getting the short stick - she grew up overweight, unpopular and the eldest of five children (her parents' "test child," as she dubs it).

This collection of short essays -- vignettes, if you will -- take readers from Peck's childhood memories to adulthood, working in Social Services and spending time with her Beloved and her adored narcissistic cat Babycakes. (Several stories, in fact, are told in Babycakes' viewpoint.) Peck especially focuses upon growing up as one of three stairstep girls (she refers to youngest sister as the Wee One and the middle sister as the UnWee), and relates a number of opinions and experiences from her lesbian viewpoint.

Peck is a talented storyteller, and it's hard not to relate to her! Give this collection a try, and you're bound to laugh, ponder life and go through a gamut of other emotions, all at the same time.

Overall, I liked this collection better than the first one. That having been said, I'd recommend reading "Fat Girls" first to become acquainted with the author's family. My favorite here was the transgender piece.

This is an amusing series of short memoirs (over fifty happenings included) of a wonderfully eccentric person who understands the importance of a refrigerator box (try leaving it out in the snow instead of the rain) and other childhood essentials that make the adult who he or she is. The anecdotal entries contain humorous insight into a bushel and a peck that make up the author's personal history. Many entries contain humor with some outrageously slapstick in nature, but most also provide an inside angst to what makes Cheryl Peck tick as a card carrying member of the paste eater club (my husband says he belongs to the Crayola crowd - I refuse to divulge my membership). Having felines, this reviewer can also picture her angelic ones acting as Babycakes behaves. REVENGE OF THE PASTE EATER is a terrific and candid account that uses laugher as a means to keep the anecdotal incidents from turning too grave to enjoy. Easy to read and fun to do so, Ms. Peck opens her soul to her admiring audience.

Harriet Klausner