Review by Booklist Review
Notaro, irreverent memoirist extraordinaire, is getting older, and she knows you are, too. Her latest (after Housebroken, 2016) is full of advice, stories, and wit related to the despair and delights of approaching senior citizenship while still feeling like a punk rocker. Sure you're going gray and no one notices you anymore, but no one notices you anymore! Restless leg keeping you from sleep? Good news, all your friends are also awake and ready to share in a late-night party. Conversational and laugh-out-loud funny, Excuse Me While I Disappear feels like hearing stories from your best friend. Longtime fans will be thrilled to hear more from the author, and Notaro may bring in new fans with her frank discussion of aging as a Gen Xer. Notaro is doing her part to prepare us for the coming world where the "little old ladies" of the world are blaring Alice in Chains from their car stereos while being helped with their groceries. Give to readers of Jen Mann or Jen Lancaster.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Notaro (The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club) riffs on her unpreparedness for navigating life after turning 50 and the surprising benefits of getting older in this tongue-in-cheek memoir. When Notaro eschewed her pricey hair colorist to let the gray grow in, she felt like she suddenly "disappeared" to grocery store clerks, perfume sprayers, and Best Buy technicians (a theory she proved by shoplifting). Initially upset, she soon grew to appreciate her new invisibility cloak, which prevented her from getting catcalled by construction workers. She also began to log her AARP mail as "death's calling card" and bought a convertible (from which she belts out off-key ballads). Searching for answers for her "new old body," she set up a middle-aged women's Facebook group to ask: "Can bending over kill me?" (Quite possibly.) It's a nonstop and often profane monologue of sardonic takes on menopause and midlife, shot through with off-the-cuff advice, the best of which amounts to get a good attitude and better health insurance. Notaro's fans who've aged right alongside her will feel like they're on a call with a best friend. (Nov.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Notaro (Crossing the Horizon; Housebroken) has reached middle life. Just past 50, rocking gray hair and a body that snaps, crackles and pops, Notaro has written a frank but hilarious book on the dangers of aging. From stories about menopause (or not), to near-death experiences and a midlife-crisis car purchase, she knows how to look at life's frustrating moments and laugh. Narrator Hillary Huber's winsome performance grounds the author's raucous humor and candid takes on the life of a 50-something woman. Huber intimately conveys Notaro's observation that women somehow become invisible once they reach midlife. While this experience can be a little fun (it's now possible to accidentally shoplift potatoes!), it's also disheartening. Listeners should take heart, however, as Notaro proves that being older and (maybe) wiser is not all bad. These irreverent, sometimes profane, narratives strike a universal chord that will have listeners rolling with laughter at Notaro's escapades, while also nodding their heads in agreement. VERDICT This wickedly fun look at the adventures of aging should appeal to Notaro's many fans and to readers who enjoy Jen Mann, Annabelle Gurwitch, and Jessi Klein.--Elyssa Everling
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A journalist and bestselling author reflects on being a 50-something "girl gone gray" in a series of hilarious personal essays. Notaro, the author of three novels and numerous essay collections, begins her latest in a state of wonderment: Somehow, five decades of hard living had not managed to land her "in rehab, prison, or an urn." Her roots looked like "someone had clearly poured powdered sugar on my head," and her midlife had rendered her socially and sexually invisible. As the author shows, getting older is not easy, even for a hardened, punk rock--loving Gen Xer like Notaro, who had survived everything from Hamburger Helper to Aqua Net. She now had to deal with new challenges, including vanishing eyebrow hair; sagging breasts and ankles that "look like a python who snuck out of its cage at a pet store and paid a visit to a colony of rats"; and making grown-up decisions like taking an office job with the benefits she needed for her ill husband, a job in which she and other graying women were constantly ignored by younger colleagues. Turning 50 also meant a colonoscopy for a body that had already endured years of medical indignities, including gynecologists coming at her "with ultrasound-enabled dildo[s]" or radiologists sandwiching her chest on equipment that transformed breasts into "the center of a plexiglass panini." Musing on the aging process itself, Notaro wonders at the irony of being told about the facts of life before she understood what they meant, then being left in middle age to watch her body change and hormones die "like they're on a muddy battlefield in France in 1917." Witty and full of sarcastic energy, the author fearlessly tackles what it means to get old not only as a modern woman, but as a member of the "coolest"--if at times clueless--generation of the late 20th century. Unplugged, refreshingly off the hook, and consistently entertaining. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
