Memoir Short Takes: Hair, Headaches & Holidays

Stories are gifts, so share them. The message came straight from the cardboard jacket on yet another cup of the emergency coffee I down this time of year. What this has to do with corporate coffee promotion, I am still puzzling out. What I do believe during this nerve-frazzling season is that the greatest gifts contain something of ourselves. This month's memoirs tell stories of illness, humor, confusion, and family. They're like presents from people we don't even know.

Breslin, Ed. Drinking with Miss Dutchie: A Memoir. Thomas Dunne Bks: St. Martin's. Mar. 2011. c.288p. illus. ISBN 9780312619756. $23.99. MEMOIR
Boy meets booze, boy likes booze, boy needs booze waaay too much until he meets girl. The twist here is the girl is a Labrador retriever named Dutchess. Breslin, a hard-drinking and clear-writing editor, kicks a life-long addiction to alcohol with the assistance of Dutchie's unconditional affection and enthusiasm (plus AA) and shares harrowing insights into the drinking life. Dutchie is as clearly drawn as any literary figure, and Breslin's love and gratitude toward her are palpable.
What I Am Telling My Friends It's a dog book, but not really. Dutchie was the Rin Tin Tin of gin here. She saved this guy or, at least, helped him save himself.

Coffey, Tabatha with Richard Buskin. It's Not Really About the Hair: The Honest Truth About Life, Love, and the Business of Beauty. It Bks: HarperCollins. Jan. 2011. c.224p. illus. ISBN 9780062023100. $24.99. MEMOIR
Outspoken reality-show hairstylist (there really is such a job) Coffey's parents ran a transgender strip club in her native Adelaide, Australia. The lessons she learned there-tolerance, transformation, determination, and self-acceptance-have served her well in the cutthroat commercial beauty industry. Coffey offers blunt advice about succeeding in any arena along with examples of butt kickings she served up to deserving people.
What I Am Telling My Friends I have about as much in common with Coffey, the star of Tabatha's Salon Takeover, as chalk and cheese, but I could not help liking her in-your-face tone and the idea that she really doesn't care if you like her or not as long as you are doing the right thing. I wonder what she would tell me to do with my hair?

Fulda, Jennette. Chocolate & Vicodin: My Quest for Relief from the Headache That Wouldn't Go Away. Gallery Bks: S. & S. 2011. c.320p. ISBN 9781439182024. pap. $15. MEMOIR
Fulda, a popular blogger and author of Half Assed, which detailed her almost 200-pound weight loss, describes her life with a constant headache. The unrelenting headache resists all treatments, and the retelling of her medical odyssey is good-natured. Most amusing are the myriad cures suggested by her blog readers and just about anyone Fulda meets along the way. The truce she declares with her condition is impressive and may provide encouragement for anyone dealing with chronic pain.
What I Am Telling My Friends Fulda lives in a no-whine zone and is pretty straightforward about not being a martyr. She seems as if she would be fun to meet; I want to tell her how deep breathing and Vitamin D could help her feel better.

Rouse, Wade. It's All Relative: A Memoir of Two Families, Three Dogs, 34 Holidays, and 50 Boxes of Wine. Harmony: Crown. 2011. c.320p. ISBN 9780307718716. $23.99. MEMOIR
Career memoirist Rouse here wrestles with the importance of family. Using the holiday calendar as a lens, he recounts humiliations and indignities visited upon him by relatives throughout the years. Rouse is funny, not mean-spirited, so the anecdotes are sweetly amusing and demonstrate his larger point: holidays help you remember what's important, even if your relatives are drunk, the decorations are flammable, and you are miserable in an inappropriate Ubangi Halloween costume.
What I Am Telling My Friends This was not really my cup. It's laugh-out-loud funny at points, but we've been over this territory before. If you need a nontaxing reminder of your family's normalcy, this here's your book.

Shetterly, Caitlin. Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home. Voice: Hyperion. Mar. 2010. c.256p. illus. ISBN 9781401341466. $23.99. MEMOIR
Writer, actor, and dreamer Shetterly and her aspiring-photographer husband packed up and traveled cross-country to California to pursue the American dream. But Caitlin's unplanned and difficult pregnancy, the implosion of the American economy, and an impossible job market forced them back home. The big picture of Shetterly's journey is already familiar to her NPR listeners, but this fills in details and answers questions too complicated for a sound bite.
What I Am Telling My Friends Honestly, it's hard to be sympathetic regarding Shetterly's concerns about organic food and wardrobe issues. The bottom line is her family wound up back home, safe and sound with medical insurance. They aren't the Joads, no matter how many references to Steinbeck and Guthrie there are.

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