Howard J oorris and Jenny Lee
(Allen & Unwin, $29.99)
This book was sent to me by mistake and I picked it up because I liked the pop art cover. I’m not generally a fan of self-help or relationship books as it’s exhausting enough being in a couple – who needs to read about it as well?
I am so glad I did, though, because I suspect this one is out of the ordinary. For a start, it’s not written by a psychologist or counsellor or someone who’s made it big on oprah. It’s by a couple of once-bitten writers who were struggling to make sense of each other after taking the enormous step of moving in together.
Both were divorced and keen to succeed in love this time but couldn’t quite work it out with each other, until, after yet another argument, Jenny threw up her hands one day and said maybe it was just as simple as women being crazy and men being stupid.
Howard agreed and eventually suggested they write a book about it, which made Jenny think he was even more stupid, and made him think she was even crazier, but then, hey presto, they actually did it. And the more I read it, the more I realised they were on to something. Women are crazy but only because men make them that way and that’s because they’re stupid. But here’s where I really started liking this book: even Howard admits that stupid comes first!
of course, he doesn’t mean stupid as in sitting on the couch scratching yourself and not thinking about anything (although this may also sound familiar). He means stupid as in not understanding what is important for a woman, or why the things he does or doesn’t do might make her angry – or crazy.
In the process of writing this book, these two basically worked out how to contain the stupid in order to limit the crazy. And as they’re both comedy writers in Los Angeles, it’s funny. Plus, they’re still together. Highly recommended.