Ten minutes ago, I am sitting out on my porch weeping like a baby and crushing this book to my chest, and then I come inside and read some chick's scathing review, and suddenly, I can't think to write all the things I wanted to write a moment ago, becaase my head is full of arguments against each of the arguments she made for hating it.

And I have to take a bit to collect myself before I can come back to the computer all collected-like and say that I don't care if it means that I'm some uncultured sap, whose into 'predictable drivel', but "Dear Catastrophe Waitress" is one of those rare books that somehow loved me back.


( )

Phillipa Strange a punk girl in the early 80s, visits her dad in swinging London, only to have a song written about her (her boyfriend saw her cheating) become a top 40 hit.
Mark Norris breaks up with his college girlfriend, and then she writes about him in "Two minute man"
These two alternate chapters of their life and their meeting, in this un-put-downable book by Brendan Halpin. ( )

I absolutely loved this book - it was entertaining, funny, sad, everything a good book should be. Unputdownable. I especially loved the author's trick of letting you know what external "characters" were thinking - CVS clerks, waiters, etc. - versus what the characters were sure they were thinking. Only one quibble, and it's probably my fault for reading so fast - sometimes I felt like there wasn't a clear delineation of how much time just went by, and I would be surprised by how old the characters were. But that's a tiny nitpick. I plan to pick up all Halpin's other books, hoping they're half as good as this one was! ( )

http://avidbookwoman.wordpress.com/2007/04/07/book-5-dear-catastrophe-waitress/ ( )