Emerson's Essays Book

When I read "I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies)" I found myself near tears with laughter on more than one occasion. Naturally, I've been waiting to read another book by Notaro, and so I was delighted to find "The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death" at B&N on sale for $5. Unfortunately it seems that I got exactly what I paid for. "Idiot Girl" comes accross as overblown and formulaic--almost unbelievable at times. Most vignettes are centered around what should (rightly) be unnotable events, (eg when Notaro observes an overweight family out to dinner)which are exaggerated by Notaro's overactive imagination to the point of absurdity (she believe's the family is a gang of criminals--equipped with a gun concealed in a walking cane--and commences on spying on them for the rest over her vacation). Granted, part of Notaro's charm is her active imagination and ability to make a ten page story out of a trip to Costco, but the problem in this book is that the scenarios are so overly cotrived and her reactions so eccentric that it feels like reading a work written for a third grader.

Despite this, if I had sat down and read the book in the few hours it should take instead of over a few days, the crazy antics probably wouldn't have seemed so drawn out and that may have saved the reading experience a little bit. This may have the possibilty of being a decent brain-cany read if done very quickly.