Forever, Erma: Best-Loved Writing from America's Favorite Humorist

Erma Bombeck occupied a seat of honor in the homes of millions of Americans. Hers was inevitably the column you read aloud at the breakfast table, the piece you tore out on the bus to send to your mother, or the clipping you stuck on the fridge as a chuckling reminder of our modern lives' sublime ridiculousness. Bombeck had an eye for our common experience and a knack for throwing it into touching relief; we laughed because we saw ourselves in her work. She died last April, and this collection--the profits of which benefit her favorite charities--pulls together some of her best loved columns. The columns span Bombeck's career and the book includes tributes delivered at her memorial service. From Publishers Weekly The housewife columnist whose gently subversive humor has won her a prominent niche in American culture is commemorated in this collection of over 120 of her most popular and memorable essays. Bombeck, whose bestsellers include All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room, died in 1996. Trained as a newspaper reporter, she honed her skills into a unique blend of humorous social commentary based on the quotidian passage of domestic life and an empathy with women in their relations with the larger world, including spouses and children. Much honored, quoted and sought after for advice, Bombeck had an infectious sense of human absurdity that is highlighted in this collection celebrating her 25-year career as a low-key enforcer of the positive in the face of adversity, whether it be her own terminal illness, or "missing socks, promiscuous hangovers and other unexplained phenomena" that were grist for her reporter's mill. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Women lost a champion and the world lost a humorist when Bombeck died at age 59 in April of this year. Exiting life as selflessly and graciously as she lived it (she refused to use her celebrity status to "jump the line" for a much-needed kidney transplant), Bombeck left us more than 4500 columns, 12 books, countless public appearances, and a glimmer of optimism intrinsic to her writings. Her latest book takes readers on a journey through a collection of her favorite writings compiled by Donna Martin (formerly a vice president of Andrews & McMeel) and journalist Alan McDermott with the assistance of Bombeck's secretary, Norma Born; Bombeck's husband, Bill; and Bombeck herself. This anthology runs the gamut of Bombeck's career, both chronologically and thematically, with tributes from Ellen Goodman and Art Buchwald, among others. Many public libraries already possessing Bombeck's works (most recently, All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loehmann's Dressing Room, HarperCollins, 1996) will want to make their collection complete with this selection.?Kay Meredith Dusheck, Univ. of Iowa, Iowa CityCopyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Booklist Erma Bombeck may be gone, but she'll live forever in her columns. This compilation, put together by the editors of her syndicated pieces, is intended to represent the best of a writing career that spanned more than 30 years. All the familiar characters of Bombeck's columns are here: the ungrateful kids, the husband behind the newspaper, the competitive friends. Also present are the easily identifiable situations that Bombeck chronicled with such a sense of real-life absurdity that readers felt as if it was their own lives being examined: there is the agony and ecstasy of a college reunion; there is Bombeck making a vain effort to find a family member willing to help take down the Christmas tree ("No one loves a Christmas tree on January 1" ); and, best of all, there is Bombeck fearing she's turning into her mother because she, too, puts a piece of colored yarn on her suitcase and keeps a litter bag in her car. Bombeck, who died in the spring of 1996, is eulogized here by two fellow columnists, Ellen Goodman and Art Buchwald. There is also a touching good-bye from her husband, Bill. A fitting finale for the much-loved humorist. Ilene Cooper From Kirkus Reviews A collection of more than 100 of Bombeck's most popular newspaper columns (during her long career she produced 4,500 pieces), ranging from those published in the 1960s, when Bombeck first darted out from behind the drier to explain where the other sock went, to columns written shortly before her death earlier this year. The book includes a series of moving tributes from fellow columnists Ellen Goodman and Art Buchwald and from her husband, Bill, often the subject of her acerbic and compassionate wit. Does that seem an oxymoron? Can you nail your target and commiserate at the same time? Bombeck could, and not only because she made herself the bull's-eye as least as often as her mother, her children, and her friends. She had a unique knack for finding universal humor in hitherto unsuspected places, locating the comic possibilities in such unlikely matters as that infamous lost sock, a dying Boston fern, or the humiliating paper dress worn in the doctor's examining room. She muses about galloping food costs, kids who turn their backs on mother love, and husbands who are too much around the house. The collection is divided loosely into sections like ``Hello, Young Mothers'' and ``In Sickness and in Health.'' Whatever the subtitle, Bombeck can always make a reader laugh out loud--but she's not perfect. Some columns are overly sentimental, including one on Thanksgiving and another on ``When God Created Mother.'' Is Erma dated? Yes and no. Some of her columns reflect, in their concerns and attitudes, another time. But then again, socks still disappear mysteriously in driers. For Bombeck fans, a sure bet. For the woman of the '90s, much still hits home. Thanks, Erma. -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. During the 31 years in which Bombeck wrote more than 4,000 columns, an entire generation was born, grew up, started families, and learned to love and listen to her.... Forever, Erma is a selection of nearly 200 columns ... organized into familiar family categories: "Hello, Young Mothers," "All the Children," "Love and Marriage," ... and so on. -- The New York Times Book Review, Eden Ross Lipson Read more