Suburgatory, Linda Erin Keenan
Suburgatory, Linda Erin Keenan
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Suburgatory
Twisted Tales from Darkest Suburbia

Author: Linda Erin Keenan

Narrator: Cassandra Campbell

Unabridged: 7 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/28/2011

Categories: Nonfiction, Humor


Synopsis

Suburgatory lampoons the absurdities and contradictions that Linda Erin Keenan has witnessed since leaving New York City, where she was a thoroughly urban CNN news producer for seven years, and settling down as a hapless stay-at-home suburban mother. The original proposal for this book was picked by Warner Brothers in 2010, and you can see their imagining of Suburgatory on the ABC show of the same name.

Keenan was forced by the man in her life to leave her beloved New York City for a supposed suburban utopia. Instead she found herself trapped in a place where conformity is king and where she often felt like she had been taken hostage by an adult Girl Scout troop. So Keenan decided to train her twisted reporter's eye on the strange inhabitants of this new foreign land. Thought of as a local town newspaper or Web site, Suburgatory includes "news stories" (Mom Plans School Auction During Dreary Sex) that go after the tiger moms, breastfeeding nazis, frustrated swingers, crypto-racists, barely-there dads, and power-mad principals.

In addition to the irreverent news stories, Suburgatory features faux op-ed "Shout Outs" (Let's Do that Key Party Right the Next Time), witty advertisements (Briarcliff Academy—Educating the Stupid Rich Since 1903), and an over-the-top totally toxic advice columnist: Dr. Drama.

About Linda Erin Keenan

Linda Erin Keenan spent seven years as a CNN senior producer/head writer for top anchors, including Anderson Cooper, Aaron Brown, Willow Bay, Stuart Varney, and Lou Dobbs. Before that, she wa at Bloomberg TV. The tragedy of 9/11 pushed her to re-evaluate her 24-7 lifestyle, eventually trading it all in for baby and suburbia. Her first-person essays have appeared in the Boston Globe Magazine and the Huffington Post.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Heather

Why oh why couldn't I have thought of something like this? Linda is hysterical in her suburgatory tales and news and blurbs. What's even funnier is that I often found myself thinking, "Oh yeah... that happened here, too." Then I'd remember that it probably actually DIDN'T happen here and that she ha......more

I have a few things to say on this one... Firstly, kudos to the author for recognizing that she may come off as a "whiny white mommy." The fact is... she does, to a certain degree; the woman had an inheritance and was making 6 figures in New York before she took off to be a mom in suburbia. My sympat......more

Goodreads review by Ann

This has been the book that I’ve grazed on for over 6 months. I’ve owned it for years, but I put it down about a third of the way in all the way back in 2012 and never actually bothered to pick it back up. Now I have, and all I can say is: eh, I get why I put it down. The “articles”/chapters are pre......more