Readings

Why Moms Are Weird

by Pamela Ribon

Downtown, 285 pp., $13 (paper)

Three years ago, homegrown author Pamela Ribon made her literary debut with Why Girls Are Weird, a rom-com novel loosely based on her writing and experiences as the blogger behind Pamie.com. This year she brings Why Moms Are Weird. However, it's not a sequel to Ribon's mildly amusing debut; it's merely the second entry into what might be a "Weird" franchise, a Sweet Valley High for the savvy Internet set.

Why Moms Are Weird is the story of Benny "Boobs" Bernstein, a Los Angeles-based travel agent who enjoys her non-Hollywood lifestyle and the occasional date with tattooed hipsters. When her mother is injured in a car accident back home in Virginia, Benny pulls up stakes and heads East in an effort to fulfill her daughterly duty to her suffering mother.

Of course, Benny's relationship with her mother is troubled, and any young woman of a certain age will recognize aspects of the characters' discomfort in relation with one another. As such, Moms is at times a very difficult read, although the uneasiness is tempered nicely by Ribon's finely honed sense of humor. For example, when Benny describes her sister's piercings, she says "My Sister's Nipples will be the name of the Lifetime movie they will make about me when I one day accidentally kill my mother on purpose." Ribon knows exactly where and how to find the funny in the midst of what would otherwise be a cripplingly sad story about just how cruel family can be.

The most troubling aspect of this breezy read is its currency. Ribon, the self-styled "Pop Culture Princess," is too concerned with the now, name-dropping MySpace, iPods, and Jamba Juice. Pop-culture references have been done in literature before; Ulysses is riddled with them, and they provide much textual fodder for academics. But Ribon is no Joyce, and this kowtowing to fads is little more than free product placement for her pet beverages and musical components. As a result, what would otherwise be a moving and funny tale ends up having the shelf life of a tub of lowfat yogurt.