Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair: The True-Life Misadventures of a 30-Something Who Learned to Knit After He Split | 
 enlarge | Author: Laurie Perry
Publisher: HCI
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $2.85
You Save: $13.10 (82%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 41061
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 284
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 6.3 x 1
ISBN: 0757305911
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.893092
EAN: 9780757305917
ASIN: 0757305911
Publication Date: October 15, 2007
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Condition: BRAND NEW MAY HAVE A REMAINDER MARK. 100% money back guarantee.
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Product Description
If you've ever been dumped, duped, or three minutes from crazy, you'll love Crazy Aunt Purl. Side-splittingly funny and profoundly moving, Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair is the true-life misadventures of Laurie Perry, aka Crazy Aunt Purl, a slightly neurotic, displaced Southerner trying to create a new life after her husband leaves her to 'get his creativity back.' (Whatever that means.) But will she get her groove back in a tiny rented apartment, with a mountain of boxes, visible panty lines, and a slight wine-and-Cheetos problem?
"I was a thirty-something woman living alone with four cats. I was probably going to be divorced. I was on the short bus to crazy. I pictured my grandmother making hoop-skirted yarn cozies for the toilet paper. I pictured myself making doilies for furniture that I did not own. I saw my cats wearing knitted hats with lace appliques. From my vantage point, knitting seemed like 100 percent of some road I did not want to walk down."
Yet, surprisingly, it's knitting that saves her and emboldens her to become fully engaged in life again--to discover new friends; to take risks, however scary; and to navigate the ins and outs of the modern dating scene.
"Dating has changed in a decade. Now there is a higher chance of meeting someone who has an internet porn addiction than someone who has a job. In Los Angeles, your dinner companion might have served time in Pelican Bay or run a meth lab. Or, worst of all, he might spend all night talking about his agent, his craft, and what it means to grow as an actor. Then he'll ask you to read his screenplay."
And such is life in this quirky, irreverent memoir, a spin-off of the blog phenomenon, www.crazyauntpurl.com, one of the most successful online diaries in history, exploding to an international fan base of enthusiastic readers. But don't worry, you don't have to knit to love Aunt Purl. You just have to know what it feels like to have loved, to have lost, or to have taken a leap of faith. We've all been there: Pass the wine.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 36 more reviews...
Crazy Lady September 24, 2008
Cute, funny, and A silky smooth ride.
In the beginning, Charlie, her beloved husband, gave a single reason (his "creativity") and said he was leaving the marriage. And then, he did.
So a thirty-something young professional finds herself alone, dumped, and devastated in Los Angelos. She goes crazy. After a while she learns to knit. She makes knitting into a hobby. And that's it.
Of course the story isn't really about knitting - though it claims to be. And we find that our heroine is a survivor, after all. I won't steal - by quoting - the hilarious one liners and funny story episodes. Author Laurie Perry is quite comfortable with character development and, in matter of fact, manages her subtle story progress quite handily.
I guarantee you will like this fast, short, and very funny read.
 No Straitjacket Required August 26, 2008
Strap yourself in and be prepared for a compelling true story ride that goes up and down, side to side, spirals this way and that and leaves you smiling in the end.
The Crazy Aunt Purl thing in the title is misleading to the unitiated (me), that's just the name of Laurie Perry's blog/website (add a dot com), and obsessive knitters who've read Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's books shouldn't expect the knitting to be the star here, because it's not: it only makes an appearance around chapter 7 and is mentioned only a few times thereafter. Yes, there are knitting patterns (14), written in the same vein in the rest of the book-which makes a nice change if you're used to only normally written knitting patterns: These are in the back followed by a gallery-you have to see the picture of the cat wearing the hood of the devil baby blanket! There are scarves(5), hats(2), bags(3) and one each of a cat tunnel, pom-pom, flower, aforementioned blanket and shawl. My glitch with these is that they mostly come with a wine recommendation but not always gauge or yardage-extra homework for those who wish to substitute yarns.
The knitting comes across more as a crutch, but this might be a good thing: one could give this book to non-knitters also going through a divorce or break-up, because that's what this book is really about, and how she, Laurie, survived the dark days of divorce and created a wonderful, sparkly new life (and with luck, the recipient of this book will be encouraged to knit too! So diabolical, it's brilliant! Get 'em when they're vulnerable-because knitting is, of course, healing and did I mention useful?)
Although this is by a woman and probably marketed to women, there's no reason a man shouldn't look into it.
The 44 chapters are bite-size, for that sense of accomplishment, and it feels like reading someone's really well-written diary or pages of a nice long letter, flashbacks to childhood and those real, often uncomfortable feelings we're too polite to say out loud, included.
It's funny in places, smile-free in others and unwittingly kind of self-helping, mostly the third act.
4 stars because I like it but don't swooningly love it (needs a pinch more knitting for my taste) but I'm happy to have it in my knitting book collection.
Definitely worth a read if you're in the mood for comfy, cozy, light and ultimately feelgood (and/or are on a diabolical mission to convert the non-knitting...)
She channeled mt life August 24, 2008
I don't know how she did it but she channeled my life! So many of the same things happened. I can't write as houmrously, though. This lady is a stitch (pun intended)! Easily enjoyabe and quick read. My co-workers love to hear it on rides in the truck!
Really good August 21, 2008
I thought this book was great. It's a quick read because you want to keep reading it. She is so open and honest about her life and quirks that you want to be friends with her. And she's funny. In addition to being a funny book, it is really good for someone to read if they are contemplating divorce but are on the fence about it. She gives very good coverage of the pros and cons as per her own experience.
Dumped and depressed - not after reading this book! August 11, 2008
I picked up this book based on the title alone. I had once been drunk, divorced and covered in cat hair and trying desperately to make myself whole again. Now, many years later I find myself knitting furiously to fill the empty next. Not quite the same as being dumped by one's husband, but a similar feeling of loss and loneliness. In addition to knitting and latch hook and crocheting, I've started reading voraciously so I took myself to the bookstore to find a book to fill the void.
I knew, instantly, from the title of this book, I had to read it and I was not disappointed. Any woman who has found herself clinging to an empty marriage, unwilling to accept that it's over only to be unceremoniously dumped will be able to relate to the sad but funny antics of the author. She takes you on her journey from shock and despair, to total depression to re-entry into the world as a whole person equipped with knitting needles. You'll both laugh and cry and remember your own journey to becoming whole as you read.
The chapters are all very short, some only one or two pages long and cover a particular point in her journey - like the hair emergency a few days before divorce court or "cooking ADD". Her style of writing is very similar to Erma Bombeck who could also make you laugh at the irony of life. Whether you were dumped when "he" decided he was losing his creativity or you lost your spouse through death or you find yourself alone after the children have left the nest, this book is for you.
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