Welcome to My Planet: Where English Is Sometimes Spoken
InWelcome to My Planet, the fictional Shannon  Olson--who shares her creator's name--is witty but confused, whip-smart  but unable to fully release her ties to bad boyfriends, childhood  obsessions, and the "gassy expanse" of marginal jobs. With the help of  a therapist known only as the counselor, this almost 30-year-old  Midwestern neurotic gamely tries to steer her way past  credit-card-fueled Target binges and a too close relationship with her  mother, Flo, and to slowly inch toward the elusive land of adulthood.  Comparisons to the charming neurotics found inBridget Jones's DiaryandThe Girls' Guide to  Hunting and Fishingare inevitable, but beside the point:  Shannon is less brittle, less self-consciously hip than those  postmodern heroines. Contemplating living on her own again after a  stint with her parents, she whines to the counselor, "I've never really  lived anywhere else. What if I never find anyone? I may as well go out  and adopt a bunch of cats and start wearing macramé ponchos."Olson's debut easily pulls us in with a conversational, seemingly  unadorned style that camouflages her well-crafted narrative technique  as she moves back and forth in time. With her retro and  up-to-the-minute pop-culture references toThe Love Boat,  grieving conferences, Prozac, Oprah, bachelorette parties, and the  ravages of graduate school (whereBabe the Gallant Pigis a  "text"), the author clearly knows her target audience.Welcome to My  Planetis an almost perfect coming-of-age story for an era in which  public life, jazzed by lightning technological and commercial changes,  leapfrogs away while emotional adolescence strangely extends into our  30s.--Maura Alia Bramkamp--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.