Those who panned it mention that it's a dated book. Mostly female reviewers of varying scores judged this book. I read some lines from a few reviews of this book. For a book this dry, there wasn't much cynicism. The coach Ralph Corlis, was the most evolved soul and his decency which - maybe, but Erma doesn't say it- led to a probable fall from grace was refreshing to read about. The 11th chapter The Volunteer Brigade was the best one. But the book's unlikely parentage to a spin off cartoon from the Fox network was unexpected.
They were of the same generation so there's little question of who influenced whom. But I suspect that James L Brooks was made of the same stuff as Erma Bombeck was. There are many references that I didn't get, and most of the narrator's point, and the jokes were like gibberish to me.
This feeling crystallized by the time I read this collection of a family trying to settle in the suburbs. This book, published in the 70's but about events - I use the term loosely - in the 50's, reminded me of the first season of the Simpsons. Then I realized that something was the repressed tone and dry humor. Something kept nagging my brain while I read. I'm going to give this author another go, because I'm hoping her next bestseller is totally as nice as Chapters 11 and 12 here. But then I noticed that I was getting less and less clueless as the chapters went by. 80 percent through this book and I thought I was done with Erma Bombeck.
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