Thirty years ago, the man I was deeply in love with told me, "Maybe you're just one of those peope who aren't supposed to get married." I've held it against him ever since. It felt like a curse. Amy Cohen's mother used to tell her, "People who want to be married are married." Same difference.
The book begins with Amy's mother's terminal brain tumor. Within a year of her mother's death Amy is let go from her job and is left by the man she thinks she's going to marry. How can this book be funny?
Amy Cohen used to write for two television sitcoms, Caroline in the City and Spin City. She knows how to write, and she knows how to make us laugh. When life hands you lemons, see how many sight gags you can invent using lemons as props.
As she begins to emerge from her sense of loss, Amy starts dating again - accepting all dates, including every blind date, offered. Her glibness is infectious. Describing the amount of time and energy she devoted to dating she writes, "I could have gotten my M.D. Read all of Proust and written an opera. In German. Twice." She takes us through all the one-date disasters, the relationships that end when the guys seem to get sucked into black holes never to be heard from again, and the I-got-this-close-to-marrying-him relationship that she was the one to end. Then she understood the meaning of her mom's advice. "People who want to be married are married."
Amy considers herself to be a late bloomer. She's been blossoming all along. Her book is funny and readable because she describes real life with honesty and openness, and we can all relate.