Meet Helen Ellis—acclaimed author of Eating the Cheshire Cat, competitive poker player, and charming Upper East Side housewife. Her latest book, American Housewife: Stories, was inspired by her hilarious but anonymous “American Housewife” Twitter account (@WhatIDoAllDay). With sharp wit and humor, Ellis probes the dark world of domesticity. Women in these stories wear lipstick, pearls, and sunscreen, even when it’s cloudy. They make casseroles. They pump the salad spinner like it’s a CPR dummy. And then they kill a party crasher, carefully stepping around the body to pull cookies out of the oven. If you enjoy books by Amy Sedaris and Maria Semple, you’ll love American Housewife.
These twelve stories range from a haunted prewar Manhattan apartment building to the set of a rigged reality television show, from the unique initiation ritual of a book club to the getaway car of a pageant princess on the lam, from the gallery opening of a tinfoil artist to the fitting room of a legendary lingerie shop.
“Hilarious and moving, terrifying and shockingly strange. . . . stories of infidelity and infertility, of decorators and doormen, of love and failure and friendship and hope. This book is feminism with teeth and a southern drawl.” —Hannah Tinti