The wise-cracking, self-proclaimed underachiever behind the popular blog and book People I Want to Punch in the Throat is back with a holiday essay collection that’s bah humbug and bahaha funny.
The stories that author Jen Mann tells in Spending the Holidays With People I Want to Punch in the Throat: Ho-Ho-Humblebraggers, Yuletide Yahoos, and Other Seasonal Scourges are familiar and relatable, no matter which holidays you celebrate.
Mann describes herself as a “sarcastic, bitchy, funny, sometimes offensive, middle-aged, tired, married mother of two who tends to say out loud (with as many profanities as possible) what everyone else is thinking”. When she turns her artful pen on the folly of the holidays, hilarity ensues.
She is skilled at authentic dialogue and creates amusing recurring characters.
It seems everyone in Mann’s world is just one bad gift, one lost tradition, or one burned cookie away from ruining Christmas.
She builds suspense in each harrowing tale of missteps, while commenting on the anxiety the holidays create, especially for moms trying to hold everything together and create the magic of the season.
Two essays – one on an overheard conversation between overachieving moms preparing for the holidays and another on humblebrag Christmas letters – give Mann a chance to air her grievances about all the irritating people who tout perfection.
Mann keeps it real in her own witty, self-deprecating letter, which heralds broken bones, her young son’s propensity for nudity and outrageous prices at Disney World.
Mann’s first essay collection cast a wide net on suburban life. Here she is limited by the holiday theme and seems to be stretching more to find the funny.
But she still manages to dig deeper into the sociological implications of crowd-think behaviour.
While her cookies might not be perfect (or even baked), and she may forget where she hid her son’s coveted gift, she’s determined to create happy memories for her children.
Hidden among the many laugh-out loud zingers are lessons on how we relate to each other, and how ridiculous parenting culture has become.
Spending the Holidays with People I Want to Punch in the Throat by Jen Mann is published by Ballantine Books