Welcome to my Planet: Where English is Sometimes Spoken - Softcover

Olson, Shannon

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140295054 ISBN 13: 9780140295054

Publisher: Penguin, 2001

Synopsis

'What if I never find anyone? I may as well go out and adopt a bunch of cats and start wearing macrame ponchos'. Shannon has reached adulthood only to discover that credit cards don't pay themselves off, no obvious mate has appeared with her name pinned to his jumper, and a job for a software company doesn't quite make ends meet. When she's driven, reluctantly, to move home, she's drawn into the infuriating world of her mother, Flo, with her insistence on reheating ancient leftovers and maintaining her mid-life crisis - and mother and daughter struggle to redefine their own boundaries.

About this title

Review:

Welcome to my Planet (Where English is Sometimes Spoken) is a refreshing, hilarious, moving novel about a young woman's search for the meaning of life--whether that's finding a man with her name pinned to his jumper, achieving a fulfilling career or just watching TV for want of better companionship and sleeping all day. The story ostensibly revolves around Shannon turning 30, and living with her mother, but through the stories she tells the reader and her counsellor about her childhood, her boyfriends, her siblings and parents--and through the time span that darts over five years or more--the book is much more about being a twentysomething who doesn't quite want to grow up.

Shannon lives in Minneapolis and calls her mother by her first name, Flo, and the mother-daughter interaction has a comforting and yet wry familiarity for any woman, whether living in Melbourne, Manchester or Marseilles. From the frequent phone calls when they're not living together to Shannon not listening to fashion or hair advice when they are in the same house, the exchanges recorded here will not only make you fall off the sofa laughing but also remind you how infuriating mothers can be, however much you love them. When Shannon begins "to grow out her leg and armpit hair" Flo wants to know, in a typical motherly fashion, "...who is dictating the aesthetic of your bikini line? ... Who's controlling that?"

However, by calling her mother by her first name, Flo, and worrying about her mother's old age and unhappiness, Shannon is trying hard to be grown up and motherly herself. It is not until near the end of the novel that her counsellor points that "every child, no matter how old, deserves to have a mother, someone who will cradle them when they need to be cradled". Welcome to my Planet is a unique reminder of that, in an inimitable style, where the language is wholly recognisable, even if English is only "sometimes spoken". --Olivia Dickinson

From the Publisher:

Praise for 'Welcome to my Planet' by Shannon Olson:
‘This is not one to file in the single white female section; it’s much more acidic and interesting than that’ – Maggie O’Farrell, Observer

‘You just can’t get through this book without laughing and nodding knowingly. Comic, candid and completely compelling’ – Essentials

‘An hilarious take on mother-daughter relationships’ – Company

‘Olsen’s observations are elegantly written as well as witty and engaging’ – Times Metro

‘Welcome to My Planet is a hilarious and honest look at what it means to be a young woman’ – Shopsmart.com

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0140295054
• ISBN 13: 9780140295054
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304