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    There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble
    Unavailable
    There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble
    Unavailable
    There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble
    Audiobook10 hours

    There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble

    Written by Laurie Notaro

    Narrated by Susan Denaker

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    The first novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club is a rollicking tale of small-town peculiarity, dark secrets, and one extraordinary beauty pageant.

    When her husband is offered a post at a small northwestern university, Maye Roberts is only too happy to pack up and leave the relentless Phoenix heat for the lush green quietude of Spaulding, Washington. While she loves the odd little town, there is one thing she didn't anticipate: just how heartbreaking it would be to leave her Phoenix friends behind. And when you're a childless thirtysomething freelance writer who works at home, making new friends can be quite a challenge.

    After a series of false starts nearly gets her banished from town, Maye decides that her last chance to connect with her new neighbors is to enter the annual Sewer Pipe Queen Pageant, a kooky but dead-serious local tradition open to contestants of all ages and genders. Aided by a deranged former pageant queen with one eyebrow, Maye doesn't just make a splash, she uncovers a sinister mystery that has haunted the town for decades.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 29, 2007
    ISBN9781415940433
    Unavailable
    There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell: A Novel of Sewer Pipes, Pageant Queens, and Big Trouble
    Author

    Laurie Notaro

    Laurie Notaro is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the humor memoirs The Idiot Girls’ Action-Adventure Club, Autobiography of a Fat Bride, I Love Everybody, The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death, a finalist for the Thurber Prize, and Housebroken, among others. She is also the author of three works of fiction, including the historical novel Crossing the Horizon. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she then spent the remainder of her formative years in Phoenix, Arizona, where she created something of a checkered past. Laurie now resides in Eugene, Oregon, has a cute dog and a nice husband, and misses Mexican food like it was her youth.

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    Reviews for There's a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell

    3.5/5

    206 ratings19 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This was a very light, funny and entertaining book. It was just what I needed after some of the books I had been readding. I recommend this for anyone that just needs to laugh a little bit! It was laugh out loud funny throughout the book.
    • 3/5
      Notaro's brand of madcap humor may work better in essays than for a full length novel. But if read in the right mood, this book is quite entertaining. I think if I hadn't read her essays previously, and expected so much, I might have rated it higher.
    • 4/5
      Audiobook, funny, quirky
    • 3/5
      I absolutely love Laurie Notaro's non-fiction books, and had high hopes for her first novel. But, for me, while it was funny, it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny like her other books. It's a wacky story, but some of the characters were just TOO unbelievable, or TOO stereotypical. The plot was also predictable - it didn't take me long to figure out the "mystery", and I'm not usually the type of reader to pick up on plot clues. It's a fast read, and does have it's share of silly moments, but I'd recommend her other books over this one.
    • 3/5
      The title is very funny, the book not so much. It does have it's moments but was not laugh out loud funny for me. Maye moves to a small town named Spaulding which is known for making sewer pipes. She has moved there because her husband has been offered a job at the local college. Maye finds it hard to make new friends there and goes to great lengths to obtaining them. She joins a book club which is not quite what she thinks when it comes to Gothic novels. Goes on a friend date to have her friend get drunk and belligerent in the restaurant and even follows people in the grocery store to see if they like the same foods. But it seems that her friend search may be over when she learns of the town's local beauty pageant.
    • 3/5
      Not as funny as her essays and the story was a bit strange. But still enjoyable.
    • 5/5
      A Very funny look at trying to make friends after moving to a new town more than 500 miles away from the close knit group of friends it took more than 30 years to assemble. I laughed so hard I cried. A must read for anyone who has been publicly embarrassed and forced to live it down.
    • 3/5
      Following her academic husband to a new job in a small college town in Washington, Maye is confronted by the challenges of making new friends and, after a series of missteps, decides to enter the annual Sewer Pipe Queen pageant, a popular local tradition.This book was entertaining, but a little "over the top". The situations that Maye found herself in funny, but they weren't always believable. The author used a lot of similes and metaphors which slowed the pace somewhat. The resolution of the story was good and I didn't see it coming, but the very end of the book was a real let-down. I enjoyed it and had fun listening to it, but it's fairly forgettable.
    • 3/5
      If you're a fan of Laurie Nataro you might be disappointed in this book. In reading this novel that reflects many of the experiences that she has written about in her past memoirs, you'll find yourself thinking, "this was funnier in the Flaming Tantrum book."
    • 4/5
      Maye finds herself moving from a big city like Phoenix to a small town called Spaulding. Everything in Spaulding is different-it's environmentally friendly, and she doesn't know anyone but her husband. She tries to make friends by joining her neighbor for tea, only to realize that she's one of the few who isn't on a motorized scooter. She then tries to join a gothic book club, and the results of that are hilarious. She ends up deciding to try to run for Queen of Spaulding, or Sewer Pipe Queen. What ensues is a sweet tale of friendship, with quite a bit of humor mixed in. I really enjoyed this book and I look forward to reading others by Notaro.
    • 3/5
      I'm always wary when a non-fiction writer ventures into fiction, as the result isn't usually successful. Laurie Notaro carries on that tradition. While I'm glad I read it and enjoyed the laughs, Sewer Queen pales in comparison to Notaro's guffaw-inducing true tales.
    • 1/5
      I really wanted to like this book. It has a great title. I had heard that it was a zany trip through a beauty pageant based around the sewage pipe industry.I hated it.The main character was the stereotypical low-self-esteem housewife who spent the book trying to change her appearance and demeanor to fit in with her peers. This kind of writing is annoying in teen fiction, it is worse than grating in adult literature. The attempts at humour were all based on badly drawn stereotypes of culture, class, and gender roles. It includes such badly written anecdotes as the sound that thigh fat makes when it rubs together (like a cricket). This book could have been a Stepford Wives rip-off, if the Stepford Wives had included that the women were all incredibly stupid and the men didn’t hatch any evil schemes.The book is not without merit; if you are looking for a piece of fluff for a book club full of uninspired housewives, this is it. At least the title is funny.
    • 3/5
      I had high hopes for this book, having read a positive magazine review - the overall hilarity I expected just wasn't there.
    • 3/5
      I absolutely love Laurie Notaro's non-fiction books, and had high hopes for her first novel. But, for me, while it was funny, it wasn't laugh-out-loud funny like her other books. It's a wacky story, but some of the characters were just TOO unbelievable, or TOO stereotypical. The plot was also predictable - it didn't take me long to figure out the "mystery", and I'm not usually the type of reader to pick up on plot clues. It's a fast read, and does have it's share of silly moments, but I'd recommend her other books over this one.
    • 4/5
      Here is the deal with this book, read it! It is fun, silly, quirky and sometimes obnoxious. I liked it because it was a great break between some of my classics, or heavy-hearted books that I will need to read to complete my challenges. Sometimes I just need a break, so I took one...no apologies there.The basic premise of this book is as follows: Maye moves to a new city in Washington State (her hubby gets a job there) from Phoenix, she is very excited to get away from the heat and the crime but what she doesn't know is that Spaulding will be a hard town to crack. She tries a million ways to make a good friend, but her attempts always fail. She comes to the conclusion, that in order to be noticed she MUST enter the Sewer Pipe Pageant, and become the glorious queen of the entire city~! But, as she is trying to find her sponsor weird things begin to happen...and she winds up peering into Spaulding's deep, dark past...Well, you need to read the rest from there.A light, silly, interesting, predictable book, that is sometimes vulgar, manipulative and goofy...but just overall a very sweet, quick read. It is about how doing the right thing, leads to where you should want to follow.
    • 3/5
      After reading a few of the reviews posted here, I was concerned that I was about to waste my time on an awful book. I bought this book because I thought it seemed like a funny, quick, read. Though the book was a bit far-fetched at times and quirky, I found it a pleastant, funny, and quick read that was nice after reading a few serious books. It's not a serious, five-stars type of book, but I still found it enjoyable.
    • 2/5
      What a let down! I wasn't expecting some amazing novel- just something entertaining and fun. Unfortunately, this wasn't it. There's something lacking in this book- something I can't really put my finger on... I found Notaro's prose and storytelling very (very!) basic and high school-like. She tried to hard and explained too much- never letting the reader find out for him/herself nor letting anything stay a mystery. It was all way too predictable (and so done before!)- I mean I knew how the sweater, the fire and everything else was going to play out. And I really hated how things were explained more than once- and every time it was explained it was done as though it was the first time. I really did not like how Maye's husband, Charlie, treated her. It was as though she was a teenager and he her father. Notaro tried way too hard to be funny and witty- which rolled off onto Maye. I actually felt Maye was more on the mean and judgmental than anything else. Finally, I really hated the ending. What do you mean Ruby just disappears?!?! Talk about deus ex machina! Did Notaro not know what to do with Ruby!? Seriously?!!? Gah!FAVORITE QUOTES: It's all fun and games until a poet shows up and sucks the life out of everything in six seconds flat. // Maye had already qualified for the basic level of hell that consisted of trudging along on a treadmill with nothing on television but "The View" for all eternity.
    • 5/5
      Not as funny as her biographical short story collections but still pretty good and funny.
    • 5/5
      Funny is the best word to describe any book by Laurie Notaro. I have to admit, when I heard she was writing fiction, I was wondering if she would be able to reach the high par of comedy that her memoirs have reached. But lucky for us fans, she has raised the bar and delivered a hilarious, yet interesting novel. Maye is new to Spaulding, Washington. She wants to just make a friend. Yet people won't even give her the time of day. She decides to enter the local sewer pipe queen pageant and hopefully, make a few friends in the process. Laurie delivers a book that is every bit as funny as her memoirs if not more funny.This was one of the best books I read this year!