There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: slight chance, talent segment, pipe factory, Might Be Going, Laurie Notaro, Ruby Spicer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Humorist Notaro (The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club, etc.) transitions to fiction with a comic mix of wife lit and smalltown suspense. When Maye Roberts's husband, Charlie, gets a tenure-track job at prestigious Spaulding University, childless, 30-something Maye leaves her tight-knit group of friends and job as a Phoenix reporter to move to the school's eponymous Washington State burg. While Charlie fits in easily, Maye, after a faculty dinner run-in with Dean Spaulding's wife, Rowena, feels lonely and bored. When she learns about the Sewer Pipe Queen pageant, a local tradition that guarantees the winner a town full of friends, she enters with her singing dog, inflaming Rowena further. As tensions thicken, Maye's rather notorious pageant sponsor, Ruby, may hold the key to Rowena's continuing rage and to the decades-old incident that sparked it. Though some of the plot falls flat, Notaro makes Maye's perspective strong enough to hold the story together, and the book is filled with the same winningly acerbic riffs that drive Notaro's popular essays. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Fans of humorist Notaro will certainly want to pick up her first try at fiction. Readers unfamiliar with her earlier essay collections, e.g., Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club and Autobiography of a Fat Bride, should prepare to laugh loudly and often at her irreverent observations and depictions of life's embarrassing moments. Phoenix reporter-turned-freelance writer Maye relocates with her professor husband to an eccentric college town in the Pacific Northwest. But she has a hard time fitting into the close-knit community and an even harder time making friends. Enter the Sewer Pipe Queen Pageant, a piano-playing Australian shepherd, and a chain-smoking pageant coach, who memorably gives the following advice: "You're fighting a battle of good and evil with your dog pimp! Your only weapon is the shimmy! There is power in the shimmy! Make him fear your shimmy!" Recommended for public libraries and academic libraries with large fiction collections. --Amy Watts, Univ. of Georgia Lib., Athens -- Library Journal April 1, 2007

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Villard (May 29, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812975723
• ISBN-13: 978-0812975727
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #34,955 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You will NOT be disappointed, June 1, 2007

By	Tina Albrecht (Mesa, AZ) - See all my reviews

Ms. Notaro's first work of fiction is a hit! A great summer read. Fans of her earlier works will see a little bit of the author in the main character of the book, Maye Roberts, a lonely transplant to the tiny town of Spaulding, Washington. You will laugh out loud at Maye's antics on her quest to make a friend in this tight knit community with a secret in its past. I loved this book, and I think you will, too.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is one funny woman, May 31, 2007

By	Nancy Ragghianti "Princess of Trouble" (Eugene, OR) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Once again, Laurie Notaro makes us laugh to the point of incontinence. This is her first work of fiction, and hopefully won't be her last. Her non-fiction work is well-known to millions, and this book will not disappoint those loyal fans. You'll laugh, you'll cry from laughing, you'll recommend this book to your friends.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!, May 30, 2007

By	S. Martinez "Lady Tortia" (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I picked up the mail at noon and now 9 hours later have to say it was a wonderful read! Beware of eating or drinking while reading. There should be a hazardous warning on this book "Warning: Eating or Drinking while reading this book may cause laughter induced splats on your pages!" The laughter starts on the first page and carries you through to the end. Next please!!