Outtakes from a Marriage by Ann Leary - Cut!

Frank McCourt, Tom Perrotta, Dani Shapiro. When these blurb writers write “crackling wit,” “ruefully funny,” and “hilarious” are they referring to this book? I may have missed something. Perhaps the amusing parts happened when I put the book down to check on E. Maybe if I hadn’t come across similar characters and plot before in books like Certain Girls, The Ten-Year Nap, What Do You Do All Day, and I Don’t Know How She Does It, I could agree with the blurbers.

Chicklit or pulletlit as I’d like to dub it (motherhenlit would imply too much wisdom) is rampant with these stock characters:

Disgruntled stay-at-home mom (with a nanny) who wants to write a children’s book worries she is getting fat
Rich husband who may or may not be having an affair
The bitchy mom that runs the parent’s club

Then there’s the plot:
Wife suspects husband of having an affair when she mistakenly checks his phone’s voicemail rather than hers (they use the same password) and hears several dirty messages. Husband denies said affair saying he’s helping an Australian actress friend with her American dialect. Hilarity ensues.
Perhaps if the plot traversed a different line than events surrounding the main characters’ preparations for the Golden Globes, I would be a little more interested or sympathetic or willing to laugh.

If you are going to spend time reading this stuff, go for a better story. Here are three better options:

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner also features a writer struggling with her weight but this one is married to her weight loss doctor. At least the main character is somewhat introspective as she realizes her annoyance with her own mother’s interference in her life mirrors her teenage daughter’s annoyance with her. Gotta love a character whose review calls her “feisty.” This book is actually a sequel to Good In Bed so read both if you are interested in following the same characters.

What Do You Do All Day? by Amy Scheibe did make me laugh. In a good way. The main character describes what happens when her husband leaves on a three-month business trip and she is left with a five-year-old and toddler.

Maybe because it’s British I don’t hold its subject matter against it, but I Don’t Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson is worth reading. In a Bridget Jonesesque manner, the narrator tells her story as a work-outside-the-home mom (see, an original character already) and her struggles with two small children and a husband that earns less than she does.

As far as Outtakes, the only McCourt comment (definitely taken out of context) I would agree with reads, “I envy all who haven’t read this book.”