Suburgatory: Twisted Tales From Darkest Suburbia - Hardcover

Keenan, Linda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0762780193 ISBN 13: 9780762780198

Publisher: Globe Pequot Press, 2011

Synopsis

Suburgatory lampoons the absurdities and contradictions that Linda Keenan has witnessed since leaving New York City, where she was a thoroughly urban CNN news producer for seven years, and settling down as a hapless stay-at-home suburban mother. The original proposal for this book was picked by Warner Brothers in 2010, and you can see their imagining of Suburgatory on the ABC show of the same title this fall. Keenan was forced by the man in her life to leave her beloved New York City for a supposed suburban utopia. Instead she found herself trapped in a place where conformity is king, and where she often felt like she had been taken hostage by an adult Girl Scout troop. So Keenan decided to train her twisted reporter's eye on the strange inhabitants of this new foreign land. Thought of as a local town newspaper or website, Suburgatory includes "news stories" (Mom Plans School Auction During Dreary Sex) that go after the tiger moms, breastfeeding nazis, frustrated swingers, crypto-racists, barely-there dads, and power-mad principals.. In addition to the irreverent news stories, Suburgatory features faux op-ed "Shout Outs" (Let's Do that Key Party Right the Next Time), witty advertisements (Briarcliff Academy―Educating the Stupid Rich Since 1903), and an over-the-top totally toxic advice columnist: Dr. Drama. .

About this title

About the Author

Linda Erin Keenan spent seven years as a CNN head-writer for anchors, including Anderson Cooper and Lou Dobbs, before trading it all in for baby and suburbia. She now trains her reporter's eye on the subversive side of her new, foreign environment. Her essays have appeared in The Boston Globe Magazine and The Huffington Post.

From the Back Cover

Enter the addictive world of Suburgatory USA, where no PTO cat fight, creepy soccer coach, phantom dad, or helicopter mom goes unskewered.

From the Inside Flap

Suburgatory is a book that lampoons the absurdities and contradictions that Linda Keenan has witnessed since leaving New York City, where she was a thoroughly urban CNN news producer for seven years before settling down as a hapless stay-at-home suburban mother. The original proposal for this book was picked up by Warner Brothers in 2010, and their imagining of Suburgatory can be seen on the ABC show of the same title.

Tessa, the teenage character created by ABC’s Suburgatory, was forced by the man in her life—her dad—to leave her beloved city life for this supposed suburban utopia. Keenan followed the same trajectory, as a new mom, with no job, no friends, and not much more than a prescription for Zoloft to keep herself afloat. She found herself trapped in a place where conformity is king and where she often felt like she had been taken hostage by an adult Girl Scout troop. So Keenan decided to train her twisted reporter’s eye on the strange inhabitants of this new foreign land. 

Thought of as a local town newspaper or website, Suburgatory excoriates—through satirical local “news stories” (Mom Plans School Auction During Dreary Sex; Woman Shops at Walmart to Feel “Pretty,Thin”; Dog Fed Better than Scholarship Child, Says School Nurse)—the mostly upper middle class American pieties and parenting obsessions that surround raising the perfect child amid the anxiety of an America in decline. The book uses laugh-out-loud humor to target racism, homophobia, submerged suburban sexuality, class warfare, willful ignorance, and the all-around bad behavior raging underneath the surface of those obsessively tended suburban lawns and bikini lines. Suburgatory parodies the tiger moms, breastfeeding nazis, frustrated swingers, foreskin-loving “intactivists,” barely there dads, “anti-vaxxers,” and power-mad principals.

In addition to the irreverent news stories, Suburgatory features faux op-ed “Shout Outs” (Let’s Do that Key Party Right the Next Time), witty advertisements (Briarcliff Academy—Educating the Stupid Rich Since 1903), and an over-the-top totally toxic advice columnist: Dr. Drama (“When life hands you a problem, let’s make it more interesting!”).

Edition details

• Publisher: Globe Pequot Press
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0762780193
• ISBN 13: 9780762780198
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240