I Can't Complain

(All Too) Personal Essays

By: Elinor Lipman

Narrated by: Elinor Lipman

Elinor Lipman has populated her fictional universe with characters so utterly real that we feel like they're old friends. Now she shares an even more intimate world with us - her own - in essays that offer a candid, charming take on modern life. Looking back and forging ahead, she considers the subjects that matter most: childhood and condiments, long marriage and solo living, career and politics. Here you'll find the lighthearted: a celebration of four decades of All My Children, a reflection on being Jewish in heavily Irish-Catholic Lowell on St. Patrick's Day, a hilariously unflinching account of her tiptoe into online dating. But she also tackles the serious and profound in eloquent stories of unexpected widowhood and caring for elderly parents that use her struggles to illuminate ours.

©2013 Elinor Lipman (P)2013 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Critic reviews

"A feast of bite-sized morsels of humor and wisdom." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"[Lipman's] good nature twinkles on virtually every page.... Comic flashes illuminate even her saddest essays." ( The Washington Post)

Fabulous!

Heart-rending, humourous, incisive, insightful. Elegant and stylish, just like the author! I really did laugh and cry.

Charming

A collection of entertaining essays from a novelist I admire. Lipman writes about all kinds of things--her childhood, the decision to have a child, the craft of fiction writing, Sex and the City, her husband's illness, online dating, and other topics. She seems like a smart and kind person, and I liked spending a few hours getting to know her thoughts and feelings about things.