How did I ever wind up introduced to this fun book? It all came about when I found myself placed next to Maryann Miller at a book festival along with one of her daughters. Via Jungian synchronicity we found that I in fact had known another of the offspring at a library where I once worked. So naturally I had to have more information, which the author just happened to have handy in printed form.
Although I’d probably never pick up a humorous biography of this sort on my own, I happily purchased A Dead Tomato Plant and a Paycheck and enjoyed it all the way through. In pulling together her weekly newspaper columns stretching back several decades--a sort of precursor to reality TV--the author fleshes out a description of a bizarre-yet-normal American household over the years of its development.
The style is concise, readable and definitely funny. Wife, husband, five children, and numerous pets all have their day in this book. Chapters devolve around topics such as vacations, first day of school, sports, holidays, marriage, and how the author managed to hold a writing life together, and her husband his good humor, amid all the wonderful chaos generated by their children. These subjects flow seamlessly; the book never comes across as a disjointed collection of newspaper columns, but as an integrated whole.
Especially amusing was the tale of how the kids started keeping statistics of which ones got featured and how often in the author’s weekly column. And somehow, in the face of this daunting obstacle, she just kept writing anyway.
review by Michael D. Smith
OR
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