Life Isn't All Ha Ha Hee Hee - Softcover

Writer, comedienne and actress Meera Syal, author of the prize-winningAnita and Me navigates her characters through the emotional rollercoaster of the coming-of-middle-youth--the time when the real growing up is done--with her trademark wit and sensitivity. From the bitching at the celebration--"Now the sister is howling. I'd howl if I had a moustache like hers ..." to the heavy embroidery and tears of a traditional Indian wedding, via the "artistic" wedding photos and "'about seventeen hours of video," Chila sighed, "all with Hindi love songs on them and those fancy Top of the Pops effects.'", through infidelity, TV documentaries and betrayal, Syal regales the reader with the strengths and limits of female friendship.

By the way, if you're pregnant and have set your heart on natural childbirth, avoid pages 72-3. Or else book that elective caesarean and cocktail of drugs. Now. --Lisa Gee

"Alternately hilarious and scathing, occasionally poignant, Syal's tale sheds much light on growing up in British Indian society . . . [Syal] manages to hold her reader's interest through her energetic prose and biting commentary about people and places." --Bharti Kirchner, The Seattle Times

"A compassionate, resonate tale of culture clash, Indian identity, and friendship . . . Spot-on cinematic sensibility and laugh-out-loud dialogue." --Publishers Weekly

"The great strength of her second novel is a rich, glorious prose that never ceased to delight me." --Patrick Anderson, The Washington Post

"Syal deftly captures the growing pains of second-generation Indian woman . . . As they struggle to liberate themselves without disowning their culture--or each other--the women, by turns maddening and endearing, become vibrantly alive." --Paula Chin, People

"Gossipy, funny, and thoroughly entertaining." --Jennifer Reese, The New York Times Book Review