Trailer Trashed: My Dubious Efforts Toward Upward Mobility

by Hollis Gillespie

Once upon a time, Hollis Gillespie was ashamed about having a hard-drinking, trailer-salesman dad and a missile-making mom with broken dreams of being a beautician. That was then. This is now. Trailer Trashed is a hilarious and heartbreaking collection of essays on one broad theme—Hollis’s relationships with her offbeat sisters, her precocious daughter, her bizarre friends, and the people they love. Brimming with irreverent, side-splitting observations on life that will wow fans of Augusten Burroughs and Sarah Vowell, Trailer Trashed follows an offbeat single mom through the raucous journey of her life, from hauling a safe to Nicaragua for her sister to selling a television series in Los Angeles for herself.

Genres: Memoir, Humor, Nonfiction

264 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Hollis Gillespie is a humorist, syndicated columnist, NPR commentator and top-selling author. Her column can be found monthly on the back page of every issue of Atlanta magazine.

Hollis has appeared on the cover of numerous publications including Atlanta magazine, Creative Loafing and Tampa’s Weekly Planet. She has been profiled in Marie Claire, Bust, Writer’s Digest and Entertainment Weekly.

Her television appearances include The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, TBS Storyline, Monica Kaufman’s Closeups, Good Day Atlanta, and an upcoming appearance on TV Land. Her radio commentaries appear regularly on National Public Radio (NPR) and Georgia Public Broadcasting.

In 2004, Writer’s Digest named Hollis Gillespie a “Breakout Author of the Year.” Other accolades include “Best Columnist” (2001, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) and “Best Local Author” (2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009) honors in the Creative Loafing Best of Atlanta Readers Survey. Atlanta magazine awarded her “Best ‘Tell-All’” in 2006.

The film rights to her first book, Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch: Tales from a Bad Neighborhod, are currently under option with a major Hollywood studio.

Reviews

[Becky]

I literally laughed out loud reading this book! Hilarious! 😂

[Kristi Bumpus]

I laughed out loud countless times. I wanted to move next door to her.

[Mary]

I really enjoy Hollis's writing, and loved her first two books, but this collection of stories didn't quite grab me. I do love how she writes about her daughter (and I don't really even like kids) and her description of her relationships with her best guys will make you laugh. Hollis is the kind of writer who makes you wish you were her bff so you can sit around, and make up new words ending in 'tard. Definitely read her first books.

[Maryann]

OK, the author is funny but enough already. I got so fed up with her machine gun style comments. Gillespie tries way too hard to always be humorous. Reading this book was boring and exhausting at the same time

[Kristi Hovington]

i love hollis gillespie. unfortunately, i have also made a complete ass of myself in front of her, oh, just about every time i see her. it usually involves me walking up to her and telling her how much i a) love her umbrella (what!? it's an amazing umbrella) b) her books or c) excitedly looking (erm, staring) at her if we happen to show up at the same restaurant or bar. My friends tease me often about it. it's total one-sided crushland.

so my love for hollis nonwithstanding, i can't say i enjoyed this book as much as her other two. I don't know if that is due to me being familiar with many of the essays in the book already due to her CL days, or not enjoying the childhood memories as much...i don't know. the essays about her daughter, her boyfriend, and her friends are the best in here and the best in this collection.

[Matt]

This is the almost perfect bathroom book. The "chapters" are short enough for a read during a visit and entertaining. Why it didn't get 5 stars as the perfect bathroom reading book.

1) Sure, you can read a "chapter" in one sitting. But the damn thing is so good, you'll say, I'll read one more. Then one more. Then one more. Next thing you know, you've been on the throne for 20+ minutes. This can cause concern for others in your household.

2) Laughing - which occurs frequently - while doing your business is awkward.

3) Coming out of the bathroom a little teary eyed - which also occurs - is confusing to your girlfriend, who may ask what's wrong, assuming the worst.

If you read this not in the bathroom, it's a *****.

[Gail Guglielmino]

Jacquelyn Mitchard (author of The Deep End of the Ocean) called this a "rollercoaster memoir" and I enjoy memoirs so I gave this one a quick read. It certainly is a raucous trip through events from the life of a single mom.

However, it is less a story than a compilation of memories in a series of vignettes. The author is a syndicated humor columnist and she does have a flippant sort of humor that drives her narrative forward, but I felt like she was trying too hard to be funny. For me, this memoir was disappointing and I would not recommend it.

[Allison]

Hollis has a regular column in the Atlanta Creative Loafing weekly newspaper. It always seems like you've walked in halfway through somebody's conversation - she always throws out names and situations that you feel like you should have known before, but she's left you not many clues. It all makes more sense in book form. This book I found better than Bleachy Haired Honky Bitch because this one gives you context for the characters she mentions - family and friends and their relationship to her. Whew. Very funny.

[Katie]

I'm not really sure exactly how to describe it, but the author has this really annoying tendency to wrap up her stories with a sentence that recalls something about the title of the story or echoes some other reference made in the story, and it makes the endings seem really cheap, like she had to tie it with a little bow each time. A good book over all, but lacking in style.

[Shelley]

Love this Atlanta author, and I think this is her best so far. I've devoured her columns in "The Creative Loaf" for years. Her books are along the same vein: observations about her life and her friends that are as reverant as they are irreverant - a soulful combination of raunch and poingnancy. She loves; she fears; she moves forward anyhow. I like to watch.

[Melody]

I liked these little essays, though I did find that their charm was wearing thin by the end. I liked the parts about her childhood, and her eccentric parents best. She has two earlier books that I will no doubt read. It was an interesting book that was intermittently pretty hilarious with the odd descent into sentimentality.

[Laura]

Another great book from Hollis Gillespie. I love an author who can make you laugh one minute and then say something so touching you get goosebumps. Being from Atlanta, I also like that I am familiar with the areas/stores/restaurants Hollis writes about. Maybe one day I'll run into her and her crazy band of friends.

[Foxthyme]

I love Hollis, whose books are collections of articles she has written for...I can't remember the publication. My fave book is still the first I read of hers, White Haired Honky Bitch, but this one still hits those places, laughter, snorts, tears. At totally unsuspecting times, too. So if you're reading on the bus, beware!!

[LizG]

Hilarious! Funny, poignant, a tinge bittersweet and completely laugh-out-loud delightful. An irreverent and off-beat look at the author's past and present life. I always appreciate when people can look at their own and other's foibles (we all have them) with empathy, forgiveness and love instead of anger and bitterness. A must-read if you want to feel like maybe your life isn't all that bad.

[Andi Barney]

Hollis has done it once again! Her essays are amazing. As in her first two bestsellers, she manages to tie them together. I laughed my ass off through the whole book, and I'm already waiting for a fourth book!

[Elizabeth Yarnell]

It's rare that a book makes me giggle out loud, particularly when I'm silently reading next to a toddler that stubbornly resists sleep and pops up at every guffaw. But Hollis has that way about her. Her life is at once absurd and familiar, and her astute observations leave you nodding in agreement.

[Ellece]

I absolutely L.O.V.E. Hollis Gillespie! She is such an honest and refreshing talent. Ive read all of her books and have enjoyed everyone. Never lend them out, I never get them back. LOL She is bawdy and funny in lifes most difficult moments.

[Madameugly]

Just started, looks like it will be fun but nothing exceptional.

I stand by the comment I made when I started this book. It was fun but it was also fluff. Just an accumulation of Gillespie's newspaper column, which made it kind of redundant.

Don't pay for this book, get it from the library.

[Melea Rose-Waters]

I just couldn't get into this book. It's a series of short stories and while that may work for her column, it didn't work for this book. I was disappointed because the people are very interesting, and I would like to know more about them, but not in this format.

[Kelly]

Wanna be Augusten Burroughs, but not interesting enough to succeed.

[Erin]

Short breezy memoirs...although I find it hard to believe this isn't fiction.

[Libby]

Local Atlanta author - columnist from Creative Loafing. Very humorous.

[Canned Laughter (Joie)]

3rd in the series. Much better than the second book, but it does not stand alone.

[Katie]

To be fair, I didn't finish this latest Gillespie collection. Her charm has worn thin for me.

[Stevie]

Fun...a bit repetitive, don't need to read the others for a while, but worth picking up.

[Crystal]

Another gem from one of my absolute favorite authors!

[Tpartin]

Enjoyed it, but didn't finish it. I had already read most of these essays when they first appeared in Creative Loafing.

[Mandy]

it was funny but not ha-ha funny. Also got a little repetative. Also, why are none of her friends women? Not a single one?