Autobiography of a fat bride : true tales of a pretend adulthood

Laurie Notaro's second book, Autobiography of a fat bride : true tales of a pretend adulthood, is a collection of anecdotes and essays that detail her life leading up to her wedding and the first years of her marriage. There are a few laugh-out-loud moments, but, like most contemporary "chick-lit," it falls flat. At times, the author is trying too hard to be funny, and her self-deprecation is tense and uncomfortable at best. Notaro, for most of the book, frames herself as the anti-bride or the anti-wife not fit for marriage or wifedom, but fails create an identity of what she is, and how her identity stands alone from what she is not. It became a difficult read when it was clear that Notaro did not plan on constructing any 'saving graces' of her self as a character, and did not write herself without constantly pointing out what she lacks and how she does not fit in to traditional roles.