Book-It 'o11! Book #20
The Fifty Books Challenge, year three! (Years one and two, just in case you're curious.) This was a library request.
Title: The Onion Presents A Book of Jean's Own!: All New Wit, Wisdom, and Wackiness from The Onion's Beloved Humor Columnist by Jean Teasdale
Details: Copyright 2010, St. Martin's Griffin Press
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Hi, my Jeanketeers! If you like my long-running Onion column "A Room Of Jean's Own," you'll love this collection of never-before-published material!
You'll learn my hilarious, wise, and uplifting thoughts on balancing work and home life (spoiler: I think it's hard), mothers (spoiler: I think they're perfect), and dreamy Hollywood hunks (spoiler: hubba hubba!). Soak up my beauty tips, contemplate my very own Jean Proverbs, and learn the 20 things that are better than sex! Chocolate becomes even more yummylicious with a few of my great recipes! Then witness my massive nervous breakdown while writing this book! Don't worry-- it's all good, clean family humor. (Well, except for the parts my hubby, Rick, wrote. Yes, he speaks for the very first time!) A Book of Jean's Own! is the stuff of real life! If you can't relate to at least one thing in it, you are in deep, deep denial!"
Why I Wanted to Read It: I'm a hardcore Onion fan and I enjoy Jean's columns (although my favorite will always be Herbert Kornfeld-- RIP).
How I Liked It: A few years ago, The Onion gave websites to several of their more famous contributors, Jean Teasdale included. They were well-executed, perfectly in character, and hilarious. The theory that the columns are only funny one hit, once in awhile is not necessarily true.
So why isn't this book hilarious? Why isn't it better?
Although it's hard to know all the writing machinations at The Onion, Jean Teasdale has existed since 1997. This book is written by Maria Schneider, who did not join The Onion until 2001. Jean's voice has been faltering here and there (you can read all her columns here) with some inconsistencies (The Onion has a rather admirable devotion to the lives of its fictional contributors) that have been slightly off-putting.
Reviewers have widely claimed that this book is good for long-time fans, but new readers won't be impressed. Oddly, it probably works better if the reader isn't necessarily familiar with the Jean character, as long-time/frequent readers will find a pale imitation of the column they know. Even more, one gets the idea that the author kind of hates the Jean character. I don't know if Maria Schneider generally writes more with a team, but the out-and-out-almost-contempt expressed in the book for the character leads one to believe she can't possibly be the only Jean voice since her arrival to the franchise in 2001.
A disappointing book; for those that want more Jean, I suggest her website, which presumably isn't written exclusively by Schneider.
Notable: One of the irritating inconsistencies that is made all the worse by Schneider's focus is Jean's age. Deciding that Jean is forty in the year 2010 (when the book was published), she's given a definitive start date with The Onion (1990) and a definitive high school graduating year (1989).
Aside from the fact that precise years were never really given before in the column until the last few columns or so, the character just doesn't embody the same generation of a forty-year-old today (or rather, last year) versus a forty-year-old in 1997. Jean is very much a Boomer, and that's not just in the mindset of the character, that's in the dating (however hazy) of details of TV shows and fashions (in one early column she jokes that she and Hubby Rick hadn't been on a date since "Air Supply was all the rage!"). Is it wrong to age the character or should she be kept at perpetual 40, despite generational shifts (which are especially obvious as so much of her early life is referenced)?
Sure this is almost fanatically nit-picky, but it's a testament to the quality of The Onion and their engaging characters that a reader could even notice inconsistencies let alone be annoyed by them.
Title: The Onion Presents A Book of Jean's Own!: All New Wit, Wisdom, and Wackiness from The Onion's Beloved Humor Columnist by Jean Teasdale
Details: Copyright 2010, St. Martin's Griffin Press
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Hi, my Jeanketeers! If you like my long-running Onion column "A Room Of Jean's Own," you'll love this collection of never-before-published material!
You'll learn my hilarious, wise, and uplifting thoughts on balancing work and home life (spoiler: I think it's hard), mothers (spoiler: I think they're perfect), and dreamy Hollywood hunks (spoiler: hubba hubba!). Soak up my beauty tips, contemplate my very own Jean Proverbs, and learn the 20 things that are better than sex! Chocolate becomes even more yummylicious with a few of my great recipes! Then witness my massive nervous breakdown while writing this book! Don't worry-- it's all good, clean family humor. (Well, except for the parts my hubby, Rick, wrote. Yes, he speaks for the very first time!) A Book of Jean's Own! is the stuff of real life! If you can't relate to at least one thing in it, you are in deep, deep denial!"
Why I Wanted to Read It: I'm a hardcore Onion fan and I enjoy Jean's columns (although my favorite will always be Herbert Kornfeld-- RIP).
How I Liked It: A few years ago, The Onion gave websites to several of their more famous contributors, Jean Teasdale included. They were well-executed, perfectly in character, and hilarious. The theory that the columns are only funny one hit, once in awhile is not necessarily true.
So why isn't this book hilarious? Why isn't it better?
Although it's hard to know all the writing machinations at The Onion, Jean Teasdale has existed since 1997. This book is written by Maria Schneider, who did not join The Onion until 2001. Jean's voice has been faltering here and there (you can read all her columns here) with some inconsistencies (The Onion has a rather admirable devotion to the lives of its fictional contributors) that have been slightly off-putting.
Reviewers have widely claimed that this book is good for long-time fans, but new readers won't be impressed. Oddly, it probably works better if the reader isn't necessarily familiar with the Jean character, as long-time/frequent readers will find a pale imitation of the column they know. Even more, one gets the idea that the author kind of hates the Jean character. I don't know if Maria Schneider generally writes more with a team, but the out-and-out-almost-contempt expressed in the book for the character leads one to believe she can't possibly be the only Jean voice since her arrival to the franchise in 2001.
A disappointing book; for those that want more Jean, I suggest her website, which presumably isn't written exclusively by Schneider.
Notable: One of the irritating inconsistencies that is made all the worse by Schneider's focus is Jean's age. Deciding that Jean is forty in the year 2010 (when the book was published), she's given a definitive start date with The Onion (1990) and a definitive high school graduating year (1989).
Aside from the fact that precise years were never really given before in the column until the last few columns or so, the character just doesn't embody the same generation of a forty-year-old today (or rather, last year) versus a forty-year-old in 1997. Jean is very much a Boomer, and that's not just in the mindset of the character, that's in the dating (however hazy) of details of TV shows and fashions (in one early column she jokes that she and Hubby Rick hadn't been on a date since "Air Supply was all the rage!"). Is it wrong to age the character or should she be kept at perpetual 40, despite generational shifts (which are especially obvious as so much of her early life is referenced)?
Sure this is almost fanatically nit-picky, but it's a testament to the quality of The Onion and their engaging characters that a reader could even notice inconsistencies let alone be annoyed by them.