Erma Bombeck: Giant Economy Size

by Erma Bombeck

Gathers the author's humorous essays about family life, teenagers, housework, pregnancy, and marriage

Genres: Humor

535 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Erma Louise Bombeck, born Erma Fiste, was an American humorist who achieved great popularity for a newspaper column that depicted suburban home life humorously, in the second half of the 20th century.

For 31 years since 1965, Erma Bombeck published 4,000 newspaper articles. Already in the 1970s, her witty columns were read, twice weekly, by thirty million readers of 900 newspapers of USA and Canada. Besides, the majority of her 15 books became instant best sellers.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is actually a 3-books-in-1 book.
Erma was born and raised in the same era as my own mom, when a "stay-at-home-mom was much more common than a working-mom. Much of her humour revolves around the day-to-day operations of the home-mother to child to work-outside-the-home-dad, but I can still relate to a lot of this. And because "career" moms were still quite rare at the time, the fact that she wrote her articles and books from a small home office makes her writing accomplishments that much more impressive. And although her humour (and many references) may at times be a bit outdated today (i.e. who remembers home delivery by a milkman? Or housecalls by doctors?) her "people personality" humour still holds true and I often found myself chuckling with teary eyes and fond memories.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny,entertaining and light reading. Any one born after 1990 probably will not understand many of stories.

[erl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Erma Bombeck was a columnist in the daily paper from the late 1960s until I think the 1990s. In the late 70s and early 80s, my mother would read her column and laugh out loud. I don't remember her laughing at anything else she ever read. I looked at Bombeck's column on occasion and never found it funny. But I was not yet at a time in my life to appreciate her humor. Erma writes about raising kids as a suburban housewife, what today we call a stay-at-home-mom.

Now that I too have children, I picked up a free copy of this book. Granted, most of my own brood are grown now, and my house is in the city, not the suburbs. But so much of what Erma writes about rings true. I too found myself laughing out loud on many occasions. It helps that I remember the era that Erma writes about. But she hits on plenty of "universal truths" that made this book very enjoyable. The book is a lighthearted break for when you're just about ready to throw the (crusty, been on the floor) towel in. Plus it reminds me of my mom.

[Giddy Girlie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this "book club" version at a thrift store and it is actually 3 Bombeck books printed together in one gigantic version (hence the title). Most of the content was written in the mid-1960's and mostly focuses on childrearing with a lot of emphasis on teenagers. It's funny how many things are exactly the same, despite the generational changes. Some of the terminology is a bit outdated and it's funny to read a woman writing about why she WANTS to wear a girdle, while her teenage daughter encourages her to "let it all hang out." There's a few very poignant pieces in here that will make you cry -- even if you don't have children at all. Bombeck is a fantastic humor writer and these three books were fun to read leisurely.

[Cws]

817.5

[Heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anything by Erma Bombeck is worth reading. She's great!

[Kendra]

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