There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell

by Laurie Notaro

When her husband is offered a post at a small university, Maye is only too happy to pack up and leave the relentless Phoenix heat for the lush green quietude of Spaulding, Washington. While she loves the odd little town, there is one thing she didn’t anticipate: just how heartbreaking it would be leaving her friends behind. And when you’re a childless thirtysomething freelance writer who works at home, making new friends can be quite a challenge.

After a series of false starts nearly gets her exiled from town, Maye decides that her last chance to connect with her new neighbors is to enter the annual Sewer Pipe Queen Pageant, a kooky but dead-serious local tradition open to contestants of all ages and genders. Aided by a deranged former pageant queen with one eyebrow, Maye doesn’t just make a splash, she uncovers a sinister mystery that has haunted the town for decades.

Genres: Humor, Fiction, Chick Lit, Book Club, Comedy, Mystery, Adult

Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Laurie Notaro is a New York Times best-selling American writer.

Reviews

[Madeline · Rating 2 out of 5]

First off, let me just say that I love Laurie Notaro. I've read and loved four of her previous books, and find just about every short story she writes completely hilarious. With this in mind, I was really excited to read this book, her first experiment with fiction - I figured if the nonfiction stories Notaro wrote nearly made me pee myself laughing, just imagine what she could write if she were allowed to make everything up!
And that's the problem: Laurie Notaro's first novel is about a woman named Maye, who works as a freelance writer and used to be a reporter, adjusting to life in small-town Washington after moving there from Phoenix with her English-professor husband and their dog. For anyone who has read even one other Laurie Notaro book, this is starting to sound very familiar. Also, in the about-the-author section of There's a Slight Chance I Might Be Going to Hell it says that Notaro "recently moved Eugene, Oregon, a town that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the fictional town of Spaulding, Washington." Uh huh. Amusing as that is, Laurie, that doesn't excuse the fact that very little of your novel appears to be genuinely fictitious. As I read through the book, it was so easy to see which parts of the story were real, which parts were exaggerated, and what was made up. From my point of view, there was very little in that last category. In fact, it made me wonder if the stories in Notaro's nonfiction books are really all true, because they were so blatantly similar to everything that happens in her "fictional" story.
One more thing bugged me, and it may have been in Notaro's other books too, but this was the first time I noticed it: she has a habit of going out of her way to create awkwardly long, nonsensical similes that seem really out of place and forced. For example: "Crawford Lake Road was not paved, and not only was it a bumpy dirt road, it was full of potholes that looked more like spots where meteors had bounced off the face of the earth the way a basketball inevitably rebounds off the head of the fat girl in freshman gym class." And: "her eyes got wider and her expression took on the proportions of a teenager in a Wes Craven film who had just had dirty sex with her horn-dog boyfriend and was about to get her head ripped off her body like a grapefruit plucked from a tree by a psychopath." There you have it: not one, but two examples of similes-within-similes. And you thought it couldn't be done. (and yes, they're similes, not metaphors. I looked it up.) Those aren't the only examples I could find, but I'll spare you the rest.
In conclusion: there is nothing wrong with writing what you know, but Laurie Notaro, gifted as she is with funny prose, seems incapable of doing anything else.

[Megan RFA · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this book up because I'd been searching for Confessions of a Fat Bride but no one ever seems to have it in stock.

I have several complaints:

Notaro's writing style is gimmicky. I can't think of a better word, unfortunately. Her jokes are all formulaic a la Family Guy, but Family Guy still gets a chuckle or more out of me at least once per episode in spite of the obvious plot device being used over and over again. It reads like it written by an adolescent boy, which is an odd choice of style for a book about a thirty-something woman.

The author spends the entire novel talking smack about nearly every person the main character meets. She bases her statements on tired stereotypes. It feels like the whole story is a not-so-veiled attempt at poking fun at liberals, even though the main character doesn't identify herself as conservative or republican. It makes me call into question the intentions of the author.

And making fun of vegetarians and liberals isn't the way to win my affections. She even went so far as to imply that all people who recycle are overzealous paranoids. Not even old people were left alone. She made fun of them for simply being old.

I don't know. This one totally rubbed me the wrong way.

[Dioscita · Rating 1 out of 5]

Already I am disappointed by the overwrought overwriting and the constipated way sentences are constructed in this story. I'd probably like it a lot better if the author (whose name I haven't even bothered to remember) didn't work so hard at trying to make me like it. But I can be contrary that way, too. Anyway, this was a Definitely No Regrets for DNF-ing.

[Lizz · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG this book is laugh out loud, spew coffee out your nose funny!! Just fabulous. Reviews of her stuff seem to be fairly divisive -- you either get her or you don't apparently. I totally get her. Any of y'all who read my book musing here know that I don't "do" reviews. I figure if you wanna know what the book is about you'll trundle on over to Amazon like everyone else does, so I just give you my view of what I read. Hey! My Goodreads page, my rules.

Give this one a try. I just downloaded her newest book, Spooky Little Girl. I'm not going to attempt a Diet Coke with this one.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absurd . . . But Pure Laurie Notaro

Change the names, create an absurd little scenario, and call it fiction. As a fan of Notaro's essay collections, this story, There's a (Slight) Change I Might Be Going to Hell, didn't surprise or disappoint. It doesn't stretch too far from her roots in writing first person vignettes about a funny, irreverent woman, however, the woman in this story happens to be named "Maye." Maye is clearly a Laurie alter ego, and it helped to have read her earlier collections to get a full picture of this likeable, humble creature.

Maye and her husband, Charlie, move from Phoenix, Arizona to Spaulding, Washington, because of her husband's new job. The plot centers on Maye's insatiable quest to make new friends. She is very unsuccessful--mistaking a coven of witches for a book group, infiltrating a meeting of vegetarians only to be busted eating meat later that night, and making a fool of herself at her first faculty gathering by getting stuck in her sweater and doing a striptease of sorts. She makes an enemy of the town matriarch, Rowena Spaulding, and her postman, who makes it necessary for her to take her dog, Mickey, to obedience training. Ultimately, Maye decides to win friends by attempting to win the annual "Miss Sewer Pipe" crown. She obtains a sponsor, the mysterious former Queen, Ruby Spicer, and as their friendship develops, the story grows more interesting. In spite of all the characters bantering back and forth in overly clever repartee and an annoying abundance of similes, I couldn't help but turn the pages just to see how the town pageant would unfold.

No great piece of literature, but fans of Laurie Notaro will love this book, and I applaud the author for giving "fiction" a crack, even though according to her acknowledgements, she seemed forced into it. Just keep writing Laurie. You make us laugh.

[Marian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had everything, including the kitchen sink, thrown in--metaphors, similes, stereotypes, and an underlying Karate Kid theme (only less inspiring for all the dog poop). Sometimes it all worked and sometimes it didn't.

The story is over the top, for sure. Some of it is really funny. For example, the main character, Maye, having moved to a recycling, no meat eating town in Oregon finds herself telling lies to find friends. This, she reflects, is earning her places in the different degrees of hell. My favorite being intermediate hell where one is forced to live out eternity in Wal-Mart "the day after Thanksgiving as shoppers jostled, pushed and rubbed against her to secure the cheapest things hellishly possible, while their children, also known as demi-demons, cried, screamed, and begged for hell's cuisine, corn dogs and Mountain Dew."

However, some of it seems very forced and unfunny. That aside, I liked the main character the minute she purposefully wore a tacky Christmas sweater complete with two cow-like reindeer, a giant snowball, and a blind Santa just to show the Dean's wife (Wicked Witch of the West incarnate) a thing or two.

Language and innuendo--PG-13.

[The Listmaker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat disappointing read.

I wanted to like this book as much as I've liked Ms. Notaro's other books, but her first foray into fiction wasn't very compelling, nor was it all that funny. Sure, it had its moments where you might chuckle, and while it did read a little bit on the autobiographical side, it didn't have those moments where you nearly pee your pants laughing as in her non-fiction books.

If you're looking for a harmless read, this is as good as any.

This would be one of the books where I really wish Goodreads would allow us to use 1/2 stars. It's not really worthy of a three but is more deserving than a two. I'll give it three but only because I can't have that extra 1/2 point.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I seem to have this knack - without even reading the blurb - of finding books that are both hilarious and heart-tugging. And I'm okay with that. Y'all should read this. It's fun. Truly. :)

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a (slight) chance that this may not be a very good book.

Maye Roberts is a thirty-something freelance journalist living in Phoenix, Arizona who is suddenly uprooted to a small town of Spaulding, Washington when her husband is offered a teaching post at the local University. Maye struggles to make friends in the new town and instead finds herself in several embarrassing situations. She even manages to develop an enemy or two, including the local postman who thinks her dog is a menace and the wife of the Dean of the University, Rowena Spaulding, who is a descendant of the sewer pipe magnate for whom the town is named.

Eventually Maye decides to enter the local sewer-pipe pageant (open to all ages and genders apparently) in an attempt to be more likeable. To do so however, she must have a sponsor in the form of a previous sewer-pipe pageant Queen. Her best chance is to locate the mysterious Ruby Spicer, who 50 years ago was the town's most beloved pageant Queen, but who left town shortly after her reign ended and was never heard from again (all of which happened at about the time as an unexplained string of arsons). It is up to Maye to find Ruby, practice her singing-dog pageant act and solve the arson case, all in the pursuit of finding a single friend to make Spaulding feel a little more like home.

Laurie Notaro is a humor writer and this was her first novel. I read an on-line review and thought I would enjoy this, in the same way I enjoyed Dave Barry's first novel, "Big Trouble." Unfortunately, this didn't measure up. I'm still trying to sort out the reasons why, but I have a few theories.

First, Notaro seems intent on making nearly everyone in Spaulding a freak. Dave Barry does similar things with his Floridian characters, but because our protagonist, Maye, is from the big city, the effect is of an outsider coming in and mocking the local culture. The vegan meet-up, the cult-like recycling rules, the Wiccan book club, the jogging mailman, all of it feels like nothing more than a subject for ridicule. For me it didn't come across as very funny - more just cruel. I think the difference with Dave Barry is that when I read his stuff about Miami, I always feel like I am looking inside out. Barry actually has some affection for his characters and is not merely trying to mock them.

Second, despite the fact that everyone in Spaulding is dysfunctional in some way, Notaro doesn't push the silly hard enough. There is a strong thread of absurdism in the novel (e.g. a killer raccoon makes an appearance) but this is juxtaposed with the continued normalcy of Maye - as if she is the only sane person in Spaulding. I think the novel would have worked better for me if the absurd situations had continued to escalate. Dave Barry's books always wind up with scenarios that are so far-fetched that no one would believe them. In a Barry novel, the initial set-up in reality is long forgotten by the end and the reader feels a little breathless, like they just completed a thrilling amusement park ride. Reading this book felt more like jolting along in a broken down car with a transmission problem. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. The absurdist arc needed to keep moving on, like something the late Douglas Adams might have written

Finally, the plot is simply too predictable. Everything is telegraphed and nothing feels terribly original. Now, I'm not a stickler for originality in plotting. Obviously many of our greatest works of art borrow stories, themes and motifs from the past. But if you're going to rehash old ideas, I think you should at least do so with style and panache. We continue to read variations of the "Romeo and Juliet" story because we like new variations on a theme. But this book does not seem to offer anything particularly new to a hackneyed story, either in terms of plots twists or unique style. It is neither particularly funny nor particularly mysterious and I found myself mostly just happy to be done with it.

My best description of this book? Imagine a Lifetime movie written by Dave Barry and you might come up with something like this. Recommended only if you have very few options for what to read - or insomnia.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was up and down in my feelings for this book. I really wanted to dislike it, then I really wanted to like it, and in the end...ehhh 3 stars is fairly generous.

As a former student of fiction in college, my impulse was to workshop the heck out of this thing, making notes in the margins like "Oh, this really doesn't work," and "Way too much exposition!"

The jokes were funny...sometimes, but just came off as judgmental and cruel at other times, ultimately making me unsure if I liked the protagonist, or if I just liked her better than the villainous Rowena. I could tell the author was trying to throw in a little bit of this "Hey, love me, I'm insecure!" to bring us around as Maye fans, but the detours into jokey one-liners seemed to really take away from feelings of compassion and sympathy I might have had for her and left me thinking "REALLY? Get on with it!" I also was unsure if her husband really liked her and felt genuinely surprised when he appeared in the text rooting for her so wholeheartedly.

The heart of the story did not appear until nearly 2/3 into the book. 2/3! It was not a terribly long book, but the story-- a good story!--was simply buried under superfluous tangents. Once I got to that part, I read straight through. I even stayed up until the crack of 11 pm (on a week night, you know) to finish it, even though I had basically figured out "whodunnit?" and then some before the plot ever "turned," though gentle curves, might be more of an adequate description.

Ultimately, I am not sorry I read it and I doubt it will ever be great literature, but I think it could have been vastly improved with a sharp editor. But if it's a little fun you're after and you don't care if a pesky little thing like sentence structure and freight-train-sized metaphors are constantly running you over...go for it.

[Kelly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Made it to 100 pages but stopped. Mildly entertaining, but just too much.

Take for example this sentence: “Anything synthetic will not only cling to your wet, leaking skin like a hickey on the neck of a high school senior on picture day but will cost you more than a reckless cocaine habit in dry cleaning.”

Too much? Yeah. I still will try her most popular book.

[Robin Rountree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as funny as I had hoped, and the way the book ended made me roll my eyes.
On the plus side, it was a "light" read...just what I was looking for in the summer heat. And it gets a star just for the title.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this when it first hit the shelves in 2007, and then I read every book I could find written by Laurie Notaro . I laughed so much while reading this, people on the train wanted the title. I fave it to many friends. Thank you for making us laugh, Laurie

[Teresa Segura · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Audio) I love this author! I’ve only read her nonfiction before this book, but I enjoyed this one too. Very light-hearted and fun. Highly recommended the audio book, it made me laugh out loud while I was driving.

[Lindz-o · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book gets two stars (instead of one) because I actually managed to read the whole thing. I've never read anything by Laurie Notaro before but picked this up because I was in the mood for something fun and light.

Well, fun and light is what this book is supposed to be and it probably is for most readers. However, this book gets two starts (instead of three) because several scenes were a little too slapsticky for my tastes. I started to get bored reading about Maye's ridiculous and desperate attempts to make friends. Maybe I'm just too unsociable to empathize. Instead of laughing at her efforts (which were supposed to be funny), I rolled my eyes. A lot of Notaro's depictions of the wacky townspeople are stereotypical and almost cliche in their attempted zaniness.

The story picked up about a hundred pages (!) in when Maye finally decided to enter the pageant and began hunting down the vanished former pageant queen she wanted as a sponsor. The mystery aspect of the story spurred me forward although I was by no means biting my fingernails and sitting at the edge of my seat.

Disappointingly, the entire last chapter is one giant plot dump It's a complete summary, most of it given in dialogue. That, among many other aspects of the story, just didn't work for me.

Notaro's writing style uses lots of unusual and long-winded comparisons and similes. Again, it's supposed to be humorous. I can think of a few friends who would probably appreciate it more than I do.

[Afton Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will admit, at first the endless similes and run-on sentences bugged me. It's stuff like this, where Maye explains why she hates Pat Benatar's 80's hit "Love is a Battlefield:" "Well, um, it's not that I don't like it, but when I hear it, I'm transported back to 1983 and a red headed mongrel of an adolescent with a whitehead the size of a nickel on the tip of his nose is attempting to shove his slug of a tongue down my throat a I'm sitting in a swiveling bucket seat in the front of his dad's Chevy van on the bad losing end of a double date while my best friend has basically completed a conjugal visit with her companion, who just got out of juvenile detention the week before setting fire to an apartment building."

Or, "Once they got the incredible news that Charlie had been chosen to join the faculty at Spaulding University, things had to happen as quickly as the ceremony for a Catholic girl who needs to get married." (Okay, not one of the more endless examples, but phrases like this come fast and furious in the first few chapters and it tended to overwhelm.)

And Maye's painful adventure moving to a small, Pacific Northwest town brought back painful memories of my own, when I was kicked out of the mom and babies group I'd joined to make friends after moving to a small island in Washington's San Juans. But Maye's experience, which started out hitting too close to home, ended up becoming hilariously and fabulously over the top in every way.

And, by the end of this story, I was in love with Maye and Spaulding, and of course, Ruby.

Laurie Notaro has a new fan.

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a gift from my friend Liza. This got me through the strangest most boring (to date) temp job this week. I like that Notaro writes the way I think -- you know me, a little non-linear, self-deprecating - but I would really love to think -- very very funny and somewhat self aware.

You're well over a 100 pages in to the book before the real storyline begins. But if you got that far, you won't really care that much, because you'll be sufficently amused by the storyline. The story takes place in a supposedly fictional town with supposedly fictional characters - but she writes about them so endearingly that I'm sure their are elements of people she knows.

The characters are pretty well rounded, and each seem to have their own voice. Except for maybe the main characters husband Charlie -- he's a little lacking -- mostly what the reader learns about him is that he puts up with the main character and has a good sense of humor.

I don't want to spoil anything, and my favorite parts are spoilers. But mostly this book just gave me a few laugh out loud moments when I really needed them.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the front of my ARC was a letter from the editor warning that you dare to read this book in a public place to be aware that you WILL laugh out loud and people WILL look at you funny. I didn't believe him. And then I read the book in a public place and I DID laugh out loud and people DID look at me funny. :)

I loved Maye's character and her struggle to find friends in the small town of Spaulding (home of the sewer-pipe king and host of the annual Sewer-Pipe Queen Pageant). After mistaking the local wiccan group for a book club, lying to Vegan Bob about her eating habits, and accidentially performing an impromptu striptease at her husband's new boss's dinner party... well, let's just say, Maye's only hope for finding a friend is to win the Pageant. And Maye's only hope to win the Pageant is to find the Queen of All Queens, Ruby Spicer, who vanished from town more than 50 years ago.

I really enjoyed the book and, trust me, you'll never watch Pat Benatar's video for "Love Is a Battlefield" quite the same way again... :)

[Sally Bozzuto · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fun and ended up being better than I thought when I first started reading it. The novel thing is different from her normal style of writing, and I was open to it, but was at first disappointed with the similarity to her normal anecdotal style since none of it was actually true. I still wonder how much of it came from reality. The main characters are clearly based on her and her husband, but I assume everything else is completely fabricated. And yet, it almost has a quality of "what-if" about it. Like some real-life situation sparked her imagination to think that what-if.

Anyway, I was somewhat skeptical from that beginning point, but as the story wore on I enjoyed it more and rather liked it in the end.

[Scottsdale Public Library]

Laurie Notaro is a comedic natural. I saw her at a reading a Changing Hands last year and she had the crowd laughing in their chairs. The book will have the same effect on you. The title alone gives you an idea of what you're in for. This is the story of Maye, who uproots her life in Phoenix to follow her husband to a new job in Oregon. Once there, she is determined to find friends but it's not as easy as it might seem. You'll laugh out loud at her zany attempts to try to fit in with the eclectic locals of the town. -Rossan S.

[Mary Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have ever felt lonely in a new town, or workplace, this is the book for you. Maye earnestly explores different avenues in search of friends in her new location. She finds a long string of characters and hilarious situations along the way. I needed this book after reading about polotics and murder mysteries for awhile.

[J.V. Bolkan · Rating 4 out of 5]

If being funny gets you sent to hell, Laurie Notaro is destined for the deepest, most hilarious corner of the netherworld. The story itself pulls you along like walking down a gorgeous beach, which is plenty for any novel, but Notaro has strewn the path with little humorous gems in nearly every paragraph. Lots of fun!

[Brie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was constantly laughing out loud while reading this book. However it was not just a meaningless funny book, the encounters and feelings described as the character deals with living in a new town are outrageous but with enough real truth to make the book relate-able.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a fun, fast read! Thirty-something lady with no kids has trouble making friends in a new hippie-dippie town. Odd hijinx ensue as she enters the town's all-inclusive (men, women, children, trannies) pageant in hopes of making friends. Thanks so much to Jenny for sending this my way.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of those fun books that literally makes you snort hot coffee out of your nose from laughing. Notaro has such great literary comic timing. She seems like the kind of gal I'd love to have coffee with. Maybe make that iced coffee.

[Susie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lightweight humor with a touch of mystery. A good beach book. Again, emphasis on the lightweight.

[Marie/laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and full of stories of the characters move to a small town which is especially entertaining if you happen to live in one!

[Eryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Her characters remind me of a ariel, cindy, me, abbie hybrid. Of course she is really funny.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book....it made me giggle.

[Stef · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hilarious!!!!