nikkie_chan | The Tao of Martha, by Jen Lancaster (Reply)

Say what you will about Jen Lancaster, and I will defend her.

Yes, she's not the brightest crayon in the box, but she's honest, and her self-depreciating sense of humor is entertaining and makes me feel like she'd be the sort of person that I could actually admit the stupid slip ups I've committed in the past that keep me up in the wee hours of the night/morning... (Neuroticism, thy name is Nikkie.) Yea, she's a Republican, but she's squarely out of the 1% and is grounded in the middle class, and, well... sane. Yes, her last couple of books, both biography and fiction, have been... lackluster. BUT. Her original memoir, Bitter is the New Black was a hysterical and moving tale of a woman who made it big before the dot com era collapsed and went from living in a loft that cost more money than I make in a month to having to file for unemployment and find a way to get back on her feet when life was giving her epic levels of raspberries. Jen has written a number of memoirs after Bitter is the New Black, each with a unique focus, like diet attempts, trying to expand her horizons culturally and so forth. Her last memoir Jeneration X told her experience in attempting to "grow up" and become a homeowner and... it was alright. Just alright. Nothing to rave about. Combine that with her two attempts at writing fiction Wish You Were Here and Here I Go Again, which were... cute, I suppose, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to commit to buying the hardcover edition of this book. But then I read reviews of the book on Amazon.com and saw that people who had felt the same way that I had about her last few books were really enjoying The Tao of Martha, so I decided to make a commitment and ordered my own copy.

Whoo, this is hard to say...

I just finished it last night and while there are many things I can say about Jen Lancaster's works, I never thought that, "I was bored," would EVER be among them.

I feel kind of dirty just typing that...

But full disclosure? The subject of this book? IS NOT MY BAG. The focus of Tao of Martha is Jen's attempts to emulate the Queen of Arts/Crafts/Cleaning, Media Darling, and former member of a correctional institution for the crime of something I didn't care enough about to pay attention to. Martha Stewart, the domestic goddess who makes women all over the world feel inadequate for not being able to turn a stick of glue and some scraps of confetti into an elegant and tasteful table centerpiece. Admittedly, the most I've ever paid attention to her was that year that Castleville plugged her in their Easter event, which got me to watch a half hour of one of her shows during which she promoted it. I spent twenty minutes sitting there going, "When do we get to the Castleville quest bit?", watched the five minute segment, and then turned it off and never looked back.

Yea, nowhere in my description does the term "domestic" appear. I'm a nerd girl. In my free time, I read, play video games and obsess over television shows. (But not the actors performing in them. Don't much care for celebrity gossip, unless it pertains to Nathan Fillion, the King of the Nerds. And some of that is for purely aesthetic reasons.) I can't cook and housework is a task best left until it can no longer be avoided (or until I'm absolutely furious and need busy work to keep me from breaking things).

You would think this would be something I'd take into account before purchasing this book, but I read her book on dieting (another subject of which I have roughly zero fucks to give) and I liked it, so... yea. Stories about prepping parties for friends with small children and crafting projects that take hours and stuff isn't really interesting to me. The gardening section was an absolute SNORE. The chapters about organizing your spaces and clearing away useless crap were at least useful. (Although I wish there'd been something in there about organizing an excess overflow of books, I could always use that!)

Unfortunately, there are some bits of this book that are WAY disjointed. Things are organized by time of year, but there's also a bit towards the end where Jen discusses a medical scare she experienced, which was very short and didn't seem to fit well into the narrative. Oh yes, and on the subject of narrative, there was a LOT of scripted expositional dialogue to make the action of crafting things more not-a-cure-for-insomnia. It felt awkward. Sadly, we also get to hear the end of the story of Maisy, the pitbull Jen and her hubbie adopted all the way back in Bitter, a lovable presence throughout seven books but sadly expired due to medical issues. While these bits were interesting, in a book with many, many chapters detailing home and craft projects, only two sections dedicated to personal life just... don't seem to fit so well. I would really have liked to hear more personal stories interjected throughout, although I understand and respect Jen's right to privacy. The ending also feels very abrupt, just sort of... ending.

Oh yea, and there was a chapter dedicated to one of Jen's many ambien induced antics, but that kind of fit into things, as she is videotaped by her husband doing a bad imitation of Martha that was chuckleworthy.

So yea, this book was not for me and I feel guilty writing about how I struggled to maintain interest, but I will defend her earlier works to the end, and Bitter is a book I continue to recommend to people to this day. Also, I'm glad to note that Jen's personal blog continues to be fun, informative and entertaining! (She once re-enacted one of the Twilight movies using Barbies and action figures, and I laughed so hard that I nearly peed. I'm not ashamed to admit it.) While I'll be passing this book on to more crafty folk who will appreciate it, I haven't given up on her writings yet and will give serious thought to reading her next book. Jen is still a really awesome person, who speaks from the gut, has a family of nearly ten animal children (many cats and many doggies), and appreciates the things she has while looking for ways to make things better. And I think all of those things are pretty dang cool.