I Could Always Be A Waitress (Paperback)

Paperback. This is the comic story of Joan Baldwin as a young mother in E.R.A. 1977 life and then as an older woman living in a small Atlantic coast town in Florida, struggling all her life to find her voice and her place in the midst of her overbearing and controlling husband, self-centered daughter, withdrawing son and a baby grandson named Excelsior (dumped into her life by their ever- running-away daughter Susan). Joan, now in 2011 a mental health counselor, tries to keep her granddaughter Emily from attaching herself one of Joan's clients--a sociopathic charmer named Derreck, who belongs to an organization so secret "that the C.I.A. doesn't even know of its existence". Everpresent at the edges is Banana Bay, Florida, a tropical paradise kept in check by asphalt and concrete, just waiting its chance with its alligators and snakes to revert back into jungle. Then there's Annabella, the Marilyn Monroe lookalike; Fr. Wolfe, the Episcopalian ex-football star who "punts for the Lord"; his wife Margaret who bakes a coconut cake which Banana Bay's oldest inhabitant accidentally chokes to death on, the town dentist who yearns to go west and ride a horse; his gossipy wife; and at the center Joan, who must hide her shameful secret that as a mental health counselor she only has one client. Add a hurricane, a smelly dog, a murderous Key lime pie and Joan's agorophobia, and enjoy this taste of Florida life. Shipping may be from our UK warehouse or from our Australian or US warehouses, depending on stock availability. …