I Can't Complain

I Can't Complain: (All Too) Personal Essays by Elinor Lipman, 161 pages

Well, the title just about says it all. In this volume, Lipman presents a selection of essays previously published in various magazines. The topics run the gamut from the finale of Sex and the City to her mother's lifelong aversion to condiments, from watching golf after the death of her husband to Lipman's experience watching one of her novels become adapted into a movie. Throughout it all, Lipman maintains a genial disposition, a trait magnified in the audiobook, which Lipman narrates and I listened to.  I think what I most enjoyed was realizing that Lipman is approximately the same age as my mom, and I'm the same age as Lipman's son, so I found it interesting to get a glimpse into what was going on for someone else whose life somewhat paralleled my mom's. This was most apparent in her discussion of becoming pregnant with her son, and in her essay about the soap opera "stories" she watched throughout life (though my mom was a diehard As the World Turns girl, not an All My Children fan like Lipman).

I enjoyed this collection, though not as much as I've liked essays by writers with a bit more snark and sarcasm (such as David Sedaris, or even Rick Reilly). This would probably be better for a fan of Anna Quindlen or Nora Ephron, or someone who has read one of Lipman's novels, which I haven't.