Sometimes, a collection of essays is just what I need. I’ll admit Helen Ellis and I would probably never be friends because she’s definitely an outrageous character at times, but the opening essay of Bring Your Baggage and Don’t Pack Light shows what a good friend she is. This is a collection meant for women who will nod and think, “Been there. Understand that.”
In that opening essay, “Grown-Ass Ladies Gone Wild”, Helen Ellis and four friends meet up at Panama City Beach, “The Redneck Riviera”. They’re all from the South, childhood friends now in their fifites who haven’t been all together for ten years. And, they all bring their lives with them, their problems, their health issues, just the issues of living fifty years. There’s the survivor of spousal abuse, the caregiver, the one who is religious, the feminist, and Helen, the funny one. They’re there for each other, and they can have a grownup fun night out despite cancer worries and concerns about college-age children. This was my favorite essay because it’s about friends. “We don’t judge each other’s baggage, and we don’t pack light.”
There are much lighter chapters in the book, though. I love that Ellis is in a “Classic Trashy Book Club”. Do you remember Shirley Conran’s Lace, Jacqueline Susann’s Valley of the Dolls, Hollywood Wives by Jackie Collins, or Judith Krantz’s Scruples? (Here’s a secret I’ll reveal. My husband seldom read female writers, but he read everything by Jackie Collins.)
Ellis talks about the family’s last garage sale, and reveals that she and her sister learned to haggle from their father. She also learned to play poker from him, and she plays the World Series of Poker. Only 4% of poker players are women. Her essay, “There’s a Lady at the Poker Table”, is fascinating.
Many of Ellis’ essays are interesting because she lives a life so different from most of us. On the other hand, the acknowledgments brings us right back to reality because she writes about everything she misses about being stuck at home during COVID last year. Really? The best reason to read Helen Ellis’ Bring Your Baggage and Don’t Pack Light is to feel as if you’re staying up late, gossiping with a girlfriend.
Bring Your Baggage and Don’t Pack Light by Helen Ellis. Doubleday, 2021. ISBN 9780385546157 (hardcover), 192p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a copy from the publisher, hoping I would review it.
It sounds like fun. And yes! I did read VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and HOLLYWOOD WIVES, as well as Sidney Sheldon’s THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT (a classic of sorts).
Oh, I read lots of Sidney Sheldon! I think her book club sounds fun. The book actually brought back memories of evenings spent with a friend who died earlier this year. Good memories, so no need to sympathize. She would have enjoyed Helen Ellis.
Before the never ending pandemic, ESPN used to televise the World Series of Poker. It was very rare to see a woman at the championship table.
I know Helen Ellis was there at times.
Oh! I have to have this! And oh yes, I read all those books. Gobbled ’em up like M&Ms. Thank you!
You’re welcome, Kaye. You can have it after Donna reads it, if you want.