Notes from the Domestic Underground

The world is, indeed, a dangerous place. Hearts get broken. Entire governments tumble. The Atom Bomb lurks. The lintcatcher in the dryer catches on fire. A toilet explodes.Carol Frey knows this world from down in the trenches, from the realest places there are: the kitchen floor with a filthy rag in her hand, the dinner table across from a glaring husband, the car full of screaming kids. It's perilous territory, this "domestic underground," and those trailblazers who've come before "Mama Bear" (Frey's nom-de-plume and alter ego) are no lot of shrinking violets-Erma Bombeck (whose The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank is the genre's bible), "Domestic Goddess" Roseanne Barr, Anne Taintor and her brilliant housewives-from-hell postcards, Phyllis Diller...the list goes on. Badass women all, they've been there, and lived to tell the dirty tale-laughing to keep from crying.There's truth in every page here--and wit, and intelligence, and a big dose of common sense. Frey's "Mama Bear" has the kind of cherished perspective-truth-telling yet subtly sophisticated-that makes the world seem right, and places the really important things-family, friends, shoes, and cats-on the pedestals they deserve.Christine Ohlman, The Beehive QueenSinger/Songwriter