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Lord, Please Zip Up My Armor
Book by Hoover, Mab Graff
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
5 people want to read
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June 26, 2019
Years ago, if someone had asked me to name as many books as I could from my parents' downstairs bookshelf, I would have started with the C.S. Lewis books, and then I would have named this. I had only ever seen the spine, but the title was memorable, and I assumed that it was about Ephesians 6. Recently, however, as I was organizing books and creating piles of titles that we should probably purge, I discovered that this is actually a 1980s memoir about a woman's experiences working an office job in the petroleum gas business.
When I discussed the potential discards with my mom, she saw this book and said, "We should keep that! Isn't it about Ephesians 6?" I laughed and enlightened her. She took a picture of the cover and the inscription inside, since a mentoring family gave this to her when she finished grad school, and then we added it to the box of trade-ins for our used bookstore. Later that night, I went back and pulled this out of the box, deciding that since it looked like a good laugh, I should read it while I had the chance. I'm glad that I did. I laughed SO MUCH, sometimes because the author was genuinely hilarious, and other times because she was absurd.
Mab Graff Hoover entered the workforce for the express purpose of bankrolling her daughter's elaborate wedding, and this memoir chronicles her triumphs and travails. Each chapter chronicles an office interaction or a home experience, and they all end with a Bible verse and a prayer. Because the chapters are only a few pages long, that makes for a LOT of Bible verses that are only tenuously related to the author's dilemma, and a lot of slightly hysterical prayers that overestimate both the rarity and the intensity of her problems.
TENSION! Her boss talks in inscrutable business jargon, and she must translate his instructions if she wants to perform adequately and keep her job.
HIGH STAKES! If she loses her job, then Joan, her beautiful daughter, will have to accept a wedding that doesn't live up to her dreams!
CONFLICT! Her husband complains about cooking meatloaf, a male coworker is distractedly attractive, and even though she wants to be a Good Christian Witness to her coworkers, fellow believer Betty keeps complaining about the "pagans" in their workplace.
CATHARSIS! At the Christmas party, her handsome coworker gets impossibly drunk, and she stops idealizing him. Later, he gets into AA and thanks her for her role in calling him out.
RESOLUTION! She quits her job before the wedding, because even though her coworkers like her and her boss considers her an asset, she wants to go back to being a homemaker. Darling Joan has a beautiful wedding, and the boss and coworkers sent nice presents. The end!
When I discussed the potential discards with my mom, she saw this book and said, "We should keep that! Isn't it about Ephesians 6?" I laughed and enlightened her. She took a picture of the cover and the inscription inside, since a mentoring family gave this to her when she finished grad school, and then we added it to the box of trade-ins for our used bookstore. Later that night, I went back and pulled this out of the box, deciding that since it looked like a good laugh, I should read it while I had the chance. I'm glad that I did. I laughed SO MUCH, sometimes because the author was genuinely hilarious, and other times because she was absurd.
Mab Graff Hoover entered the workforce for the express purpose of bankrolling her daughter's elaborate wedding, and this memoir chronicles her triumphs and travails. Each chapter chronicles an office interaction or a home experience, and they all end with a Bible verse and a prayer. Because the chapters are only a few pages long, that makes for a LOT of Bible verses that are only tenuously related to the author's dilemma, and a lot of slightly hysterical prayers that overestimate both the rarity and the intensity of her problems.
TENSION! Her boss talks in inscrutable business jargon, and she must translate his instructions if she wants to perform adequately and keep her job.
HIGH STAKES! If she loses her job, then Joan, her beautiful daughter, will have to accept a wedding that doesn't live up to her dreams!
CONFLICT! Her husband complains about cooking meatloaf, a male coworker is distractedly attractive, and even though she wants to be a Good Christian Witness to her coworkers, fellow believer Betty keeps complaining about the "pagans" in their workplace.
CATHARSIS! At the Christmas party, her handsome coworker gets impossibly drunk, and she stops idealizing him. Later, he gets into AA and thanks her for her role in calling him out.
RESOLUTION! She quits her job before the wedding, because even though her coworkers like her and her boss considers her an asset, she wants to go back to being a homemaker. Darling Joan has a beautiful wedding, and the boss and coworkers sent nice presents. The end!
Displaying 1 of 1 review