The King and the Quirky by Heather Siegel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Unputdownable and inspirational (advance review)

I devoured The King and the Quirky in a delightful weekend binge. Heather Siegel's delectable prose and gentle, self-deprecating hilarity make her memoir of love and marriage a joy to read; even as she discovers that the two conditions are not necessarily equivalent. What makes Siegel's perspective refreshing is its critical edge -- and consequently what her memoir is not. This is not How To Be Wonder Wifey. Siegel has not written How To Live (By Letting Your Offspring Do It For You), Embracing The Status Quo Guilt-Free, or even How To Be The Feminist You Think You Are. What she's written is a great story that questions every generalization: a story of a singular, complicated, ambiguous, and even self-contradictory protagonist, who just so happens to be Siegel herself, on a perilous adventure that happens to be Siegel's married life. What she seeks is some answer to the question of what she wants out of existence. She never stops trying (and trying and trying) to discover the person she wants to be. And her way of wondering about life is to live it: try running coffee houses, try stay-at-home mothering, try running an organic juice bar, a beauty bar, becoming a makeup artist, guzzling Xanax, and of course writing. In her quest for self-fulfillment, Siegel tries it all -- including giving up -- and along the way becomes an exceptional writer of unforgettable stories.




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