There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble

I really wanted to like this book. It has a great title. I had heard that it was a zany trip through a beauty pageant based around the sewage pipe industry.

I hated it.

The main character was the stereotypical low-self-esteem housewife who spent the book trying to change her appearance and demeanor to fit in with her peers. This kind of writing is annoying in teen fiction, it is worse than grating in adult literature. The attempts at humour were all based on badly drawn stereotypes of culture, class, and gender roles. It includes such badly written anecdotes as the sound that thigh fat makes when it rubs together (like a cricket). This book could have been a Stepford Wives rip-off, if the Stepford Wives had included that the women were show more all incredibly stupid and the men didn’t hatch any evil schemes.

The book is not without merit; if you are looking for a piece of fluff for a book club full of uninspired housewives, this is it. At least the title is funny. show less

Funny is the best word to describe any book by Laurie Notaro. I have to admit, when I heard she was writing fiction, I was wondering if she would be able to reach the high par of comedy that her memoirs have reached. But lucky for us fans, she has raised the bar and delivered a hilarious, yet interesting novel. Maye is new to Spaulding, Washington. She wants to just make a friend. Yet people won't even give her the time of day. She decides to enter the local sewer pipe queen pageant and hopefully, make a few friends in the process. Laurie delivers a book that is every bit as funny as her memoirs if not more funny.This was one of the best books I read this year!

Notaro's brand of madcap humor may work better in essays than for a full length novel. But if read in the right mood, this book is quite entertaining. I think if I hadn't read her essays previously, and expected so much, I might have rated it higher.

The title is very funny, the book not so much. It does have it's moments but was not laugh out loud funny for me. Maye moves to a small town named Spaulding which is known for making sewer pipes. She has moved there because her husband has been offered a job at the local college. Maye finds it hard to make new friends there and goes to great lengths to obtaining them. She joins a book club which is not quite what she thinks when it comes to Gothic novels. Goes on a friend date to have her friend get drunk and belligerent in the restaurant and even follows people in the grocery store to see if they like the same foods. But it seems that her friend search may be over when she learns of the town's local beauty pageant.

Here is the deal with this book, read it! It is fun, silly, quirky and sometimes obnoxious. I liked it because it was a great break between some of my classics, or heavy-hearted books that I will need to read to complete my challenges. Sometimes I just need a break, so I took one...no apologies there.

The basic premise of this book is as follows: Maye moves to a new city in Washington State (her hubby gets a job there) from Phoenix, she is very excited to get away from the heat and the crime but what she doesn't know is that Spaulding will be a hard town to crack. She tries a million ways to make a good friend, but her attempts always fail. She comes to the conclusion, that in order to be noticed she MUST enter the Sewer Pipe Pageant, show more and become the glorious queen of the entire city~! But, as she is trying to find her sponsor weird things begin to happen...and she winds up peering into Spaulding's deep, dark past...Well, you need to read the rest from there.

A light, silly, interesting, predictable book, that is sometimes vulgar, manipulative and goofy...but just overall a very sweet, quick read. It is about how doing the right thing, leads to where you should want to follow. show less

As an ardent fan of Laurie Notaro, I was excited to dive into her first stab at a novel. I found it very disappointing. In efforts to stay clear of a non-fiction feel, she utilized the third person. However, it wasn't third-person omnipotent. It was only omnipotent as far as the main character. I think it would have flowed far better in the first person. Stories I know would have ordinarily been laugh-out-loud funny if told from the heart, as in her other works, just fell flat. The story meandered a lot. Once it finally got to the point (well into the book), it ended as if she randomly drew plot points (and far too many) from a hat. I hope she either sticks to non-fiction or delves into better stylized fiction.

I absolutely love Laurie Notaro's non-fiction books, and had high hopes for her first novel. But, for me, while it was funny, it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny like her other books.

It's a wacky story, but some of the characters were just TOO unbelievable, or TOO stereotypical. The plot was also predictable - it didn't take me long to figure out the "mystery", and I'm not usually the type of reader to pick up on plot clues.

It's a fast read, and does have it's share of silly moments, but I'd recommend her other books over this one.