Friday, February 11, 2011

Jill Kargman's "Sometimes I Feel Like A Nut"

Jill Kargman is the author of teen books Bittersweet Sixteen, Summer Intern, and Jet Set, plus some excellent grown-up books.

She applied the “Page 99 Test” to her new book, Sometimes I Feel Like a Nut: Essays and Observations, and reported the following:
Page 99 of my book is actually sweet-- way the hell sweeter than I really am. It's part of an ode to my former life o' squalor called "A Letter To My Crappy One Bedroom," but captures not the roaches or coke-snorting neighbor or the lonely nights of shitty blind dates or sobbing atop piles of unopened boxes dropped there by the Hot Israeli Movers. By Page 99 I have reached the denouement of my personal Hades-- coming through the three years post- broken engagement and on the other side, away from horror show job, breakups, and a step closer to Happily Ever After. But the point of this chapter, and in fact the book as a whole, is that it's the bumpy parts that make us who we are, and that Harry my husband who carried me over the threshold didn't save me-- that shittyass apartment did. It was in those exposed brick walls that I found myself again, dancing alone to my blared weird music, staying up late twisting the phone cord around my fingers as I stressed to my best friends about the future while contemplating using it as a noose (joking), and began to really figure out what I wanted to do with my life. Page 99 is also miraculously devoid of profanity; one review said the F word and I are BFFs. And to that I say, Fuck yeah! If Chris Rock can say it why the fuck can't a honky mom of three? I mean, it's not like I say it front of the nuggets or anything. Unless they spill milk. Just kidding. Anyway I hope you all dig page 99 but know there's a much edgier side to the book that's not as sugary and tired with a happy ending bow; like in life there are many pitfalls and the humor of my friends and family dug me out again and again. I hope peeps enjoy this mini roller coaster of adventures and see some of their own chapters reflected. Happy reading and thank you so much!
Learn more about the book and author at Jill Kargman's website.

--Marshal Zeringue