Family - The Ties that Bind...And Gag!

This is the first book that I’ve read by this Author, and it had me chuckling happily from start to finish. What needs to be remembered though, by any reader picking it up, is that it is a 1980’s book filled with 1980’s humour and references.

As it is a hilariously funny snapshot into the Authors Family life during this time period, there are no characters that have to be developed, as each member of the clan brings their own baggage with them which is tipped out in front of the washing machine for the reader to pick through, or not as they see fit. It is a book to appeal to everyone, regardless of the type of Family they were raised; anyone that reads this will be able to relate to and recognize at least one member of the show more Authors’ Family that resides in their own. The book also has appeal across the genders; women will recognize their part in the whole play unfolding before them and men will be able to know profess to understanding the reasoning behind why their womenfolk do the things they do.

It doesn’t matter that, at times the stories being told in this book appear to go off at a tangent and never return, it just adds to the humour and reality of what is being written about; after all how much of our own families lives follow a logic and direct route to any point in time, I know our family doesn’t. Through the laid back writing style of this Author, the reader is shown that’s is OK to have a dysfunctional family and that it’s also OK to be able to laugh when things go wrong; even in the most mundane of situations humour is always there to be found.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys laughter in their lives, and doesn’t mind laughing out loud in public.


Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/01/14/review-family-the-ties-that-bind-and-gag-e...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. show less

Erma Bombeck is a "normal housewife" who began writing a family humor column a couple of decades ago, and it became syndicated and took off. With good reason, I find here. Her humor is drawn from her own family life, and is exaggerated but not to such a degree that the family members become caricatures. Actually, I find her writing quite appealing and self-deprecatingly funny, and the family situations she writes about ring true. And to add resonance, there is the occasional piece where she drops the comedy (but not the writing skill) and catches the reader by surprise with a passage that touches the heart in some way. I'm a sucker for those times when humor writers turn serious (and vice-versa).

This is the first book that I’ve read by this Author, and it had me chuckling happily from start to finish. What needs to be remembered though, by any reader picking it up, is that it is a 1980’s book filled with 1980’s humour and references.

As it is a hilariously funny snapshot into the Authors Family life during this time period, there are no characters that have to be developed, as each member of the clan brings their own baggage with them which is tipped out in front of the washing machine for the reader to pick through, or not as they see fit. It is a book to appeal to everyone, regardless of the type of Family they were raised; anyone that reads this will be able to relate to and recognize at least one member of the show more Authors’ Family that resides in their own. The book also has appeal across the genders; women will recognize their part in the whole play unfolding before them and men will be able to know profess to understanding the reasoning behind why their womenfolk do the things they do.

It doesn’t matter that, at times the stories being told in this book appear to go off at a tangent and never return, it just adds to the humour and reality of what is being written about; after all how much of our own families lives follow a logic and direct route to any point in time, I know our family doesn’t. Through the laid back writing style of this Author, the reader is shown that’s is OK to have a dysfunctional family and that it’s also OK to be able to laugh when things go wrong; even in the most mundane of situations humour is always there to be found.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys laughter in their lives, and doesn’t mind laughing out loud in public.


Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.com/2014/01/14/review-family-the-ties-that-bind-and-gag-e...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. show less

Always funny Erma