Solace in knitting
Laurie Perry finds comfort with yarn in her blog-turned-memoir, Crazy Aunt Purl’s Drunk, Divorced & Covered in Cat Hair
By Adam Schragin
Published: October 31st, 2007 | 11:00am
After four years of marriage, graphic artist Laurie Perry was shocked when her husband informed her, with no fanfare, that he was moving out and that their relationship was stifling his creativity. This is where Perry's memoir Crazy Aunt Purl's Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair
begins, at the end of relationship that for Perry had been her rock both emotionally and financially.
begins, at the end of relationship that for Perry had been her rock both emotionally and financially. Alone in a new place without the dependability of a companion, confronted with her finances for the first time, and still reeling from the shock of her breakup, Perry holes up in her new home with a wine bottle and her four felines, hence the title. Slowly but surely, Perry works through her difficulties with the help of a few friends, eventually taking up knitting as a solace, and from that point on she begins making important changes in her life — taking control of her debt, making a trip to Paris, even dating — and eventually turns lemons into lemonade.
Perry's book is published by Health Communications, Inc., the folks who have wrought upon the earth each and every book in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, which has already expanded into making even minutiae like golf and chocolate the subject of tear-jerking, "true" stories guaranteed to provide inspiration while they make bank. To Perry's credit, her book is a light look at some dark subjects — loneliness, heartbreak, divorce — that is both honest and entertaining, and not nearly as schmaltzy as one might expect.
Perry is a straight-shooter, and she's funny to boot, so she keeps things positive and snappy even as we get a pretty in-depth look into the life of a scared, unsure woman truly alone in the world for the first time. As mentioned, Perry has pretty strong sense of humor and even in the midst of describing her pain and loneliness her wit never erodes. With such a light, sprightly outlook, it's only a matter of time before what went wrong begins to go right for Perry. Her friends take her to a life-changing Stitch ‘n Bitch session that transforms her opinion of knitting forever, she takes advantage of her bank job to reign in her spending, and clears her house of clutter. In what could easily be the twelve steps for post-divorced individuals, Perry makes strides so great that one could argue that, thanks to the divorce and the changes it compelled her to make, she's now more well-adjusted and happier than ever before.
That's not to say that you're going to enjoy reading about the journey as much as Perry did living it. After picking up her knitting needles, Perry's life becomes such an upward trajectory that the self-discovery and joyfulness becomes almost rote, if not irritating. This is a book meant to inspire, and if you're not in a similar place, Perry's good intentions aren't always enough. Learn a skill, fraternize with others, balance your checkbook — it's nothing most of us don't already do, breakup or no. Also, two of the three subjects in the title — the knitting and cats — don't take up nearly as much book space as you might expect. The cats are mostly used as signifiers that Perry is alone and single, and the knitting is a revelation at first but fades into the background in lieu of cookouts with friends and a new romance. It's not a huge problem that the latter doesn't take center stage, but what with the knitting projects included in the book and the emphasis on the whole knit-therapy angle, it is confusing.
The term "chick lit" is an uncomfortable, not to say pretty sexist term, but Perry's book has the hallmarks of what people expect from that genre, which is to say it's the rule, not the exception to it. But with her tenacity and good humor, Perry can spin a pretty good yarn, and Drunk, Divorced, and Covered in Cat Hair is that, if nothing else.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
By Laurie Perry
284 pages
List Price: $15.95
Issue #27
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