Trailer Trashed: My Dubious Efforts Toward Upward Mobility
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.66 (609 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1599213850 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2015-12-30 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
If anyone asked about her family, she would tell them her parents were wealthy and that she came from a refined background. Think David Sedaris meets "Thelma & Louise." "If David Sedaris had a vagina and wasn't such a pussy, he'd write like Hollis Gillespie." --Bust magazine . Hollis Gillespie used to be embarrassed about having an alcoholic, trailer-salesman dad and a bomb-making mom with broken dreams of being a beautician. She never mentioned the time they lived in a mobile home two miles north of the Tijuana border. "Trailer Trashed" is a collection of interconnected essays, ranging from hilarious to heart-breaking, all on one broad theme—Hollis Gillespie's relationships with her equally offbeat sisters, her precocious daughter, her bizarre friends, and the people they love
Frederick S. Goethel said One of Very Few Writers Who Could Have Me Crying and Laughing Within Several Pages. Based on the written material about the book I was expecting a Southern humorist along the lines of Dave Barry or perhaps Lewis Grizzard. And, while I did laugh out loud in a number of places, the book has a greater depth and is much less sarcastic than Barry.The book consists of a number of essays about her unusual life. That she was able to be as normal as she is, given her childhood, is amazing. And, her life today is anything but normal, with Lary, Grant and Daniel in her life. You would have to read it to believe what she has gone through.One of the things that struck me as unusual was her ability to have me laughing a loud . Trailer Life I have toyed with the idea of trailer living since it seems so cost-efficient and sensible. I attribute this to watching too many episodes of The Rockford Files.While researching the subject a bit I stumbled across Hollis Gillespie's book, Trailer Trashed.It's a fun and colorful read with a strange band of quirky characters, in and out of her life. I suppose one could call her a latter day Erma Bombeck. She explains that as a child, her father was a trailer salesman and that she grew up in a world of trailers. When she described one rolling home as a "canned ham" trailer, I knew instantly the design she surely meant.I still think. The ultimate guide to trailers! You know, Hollis is the one author that I wish were my neighbor and good friend! What fun it would be to "hang" with her and her band of weird friends. I've read all of her books and laughed so hard that many times I had to put the book down because I had tears in my eyes and couldn't read the words on the page.Through all the humor, there shines the real Hollis, who is a kind and sincere persona bit off center, but wonderful just the same. You will love this book!
The more interesting sketches focus on the personal, like the one where she contemplates finding a man to date: Odds are I can at least snag a bad one, and it used to be that even bad relationships were fun in their own way. From Publishers Weekly Atlanta-based Gillespie (Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch is a syndicated humor columnist who loves trailer life, yard sales and buddies who, like her, have avoided turning into pod people. . She and her friends love to call each other you pussy or pussy-ass or the more original, asstard. Although there's no big story, this wouldn't be a problem, except Gillespie's potty-mouth style makes most of her stories sound alike. Gillespie's latest concept is to become a landlord, so there are tales of cheesy house renovations and overly picky renters, although by the end of this book she's sold her story to Hollywood, ending one upward mobility theme. Readers who are titillated by discussions of friends' ene