Comic novel about mental illness, which sounds in bad taste but is not. Laugh out loud at certain points. Sympathetic view of real life.

Jo Brand is sort of the literary Janis Joplin. Not the most stunning woman you could come across, but with a certain something, a special 'thing' that gives her a sexy edge. With Janis it is the voice, and other than Joss Stone, no other woman has the voice, and with Jo it is her dead pan humour, not like Jen Saunders or Dawn French which is a little more mainstream, but more like Tracy Ullman or Kathy Burke.

As I have always maintained, I find all women attractive, just some more attractive than others.

Anyway, I am being sidelined from telling you about this book. She has written a few books it seems and this one is the latest (about 2 years old by the time I got to it) and I loved it. Very much in her style of delivering a story live or doing her routine I couldn't help but wonder if this was some sort of biography she has written it so well. I think it is very much aimed at the English sense of humour and could be 'missed' by American readers although you could not help but picture the Wildgoose brothers as two stereotyped rednecks from the US south.

While the story is really based around one character, a girl named Alice, as she grows up in small town Herefordshire (or something like that) it as much focuses on her mum, Gina, a woman who appears to have a devilish streak about her which actually turns out to be full-blown schizophrenia as she ages. Caught up in the middle is poor-suffering hubby and dad, Keith, a loveable guy who does his best to portray himself as a hippy.

Brilliantly written and more than a giggle and roar here and there it is also a sobering insight into the world of bi-polar disorders and the effect it has on those around them.

Other than the unlikey and all too convenient ending I would recommend this, but unfortunately the last chapter or two undid all the good work the previous 20-odd chapters did. ( )

Not my ideal book, or what I expected from the description on the back, the writing was good and it had a unique storyline, cute characters and funny throughout the book right to the very end. ( )

I got this book free through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers.

Take Running with Scissors, mix with the Adrian Mole books, shake and stir, and you will get something approximating The More You Ignore Me. The author's experiences as a psychiatric nurse and stand-up comedian are used to their full extent here. I never knew a book about schizophrenia could be so authentic and so incredibly funny at the same time. And the ending -- a triple wedding followed by a house fire -- was just icing on the cake. ( )

I have tried repeatedly to read this book. I just couldn't get into it. It wasn't what I expected and I ultimately gave up before finishing. ( )