Higher Math

Chronicles the life and times of amateur mathematician and former stand-up comic Marissa "Moose" Minnion who, due to an allergic reaction to Brazil nuts, is in a coma

Did you hear the one about the woman who had an allergic reaction to a Brazil nut, fell into a coma and then published a book--this one-- pre -posthumously? Seems she'd led an eclectic life--actress, student, bread dough sculptress, stand-up comic (like the author), game-show contestant--and had left a written record of notebook scribblings and journal entries.These jottings, some found in a sewing box, others on cocktail napkins and computer discs, were collected by various friends and bound together in a book titled Higher Math while the woman, Marissa "Moose" Minnion, lay comatose on her deathbed. Readers may initially be amused and intrigued by the concept and may even want to follow the patient through a turbulent childhood (her mother points a gun at her in one particularly harrowing episode), a disastrous love-life (with boyfriends named Husk and T. Rex and Roman) and her prize-winning stint on Crosswits (cheese and bathroom cleaning products duly awarded). But, eventually, for most readers the pastiche of jokes will wear thin and the laughs fall limp before Ball gets to the punchline. Author tour.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This author's first presents more than we ever wanted to know about the life of a Hollywood slacker, by a former stand-up comedienne, author/producer of the musical Life Is a Low-Budget Musical. Marissa Minnion, nicknamed ``Moose'' by a former boyfriend in reference to her imposing nose, has fallen into a coma after eating too many Brazil nuts, but never fear--her life story has been reconstructed here by a crew of academics drawing on a lifetime of letters and journal entries. According to the evidence, Moose had a depressing tendency to trail boyfriends across continents on a moment's notice in pursuit of eternal romance, though all she won for her adventures in Chicago, London, New York, Greece, and Montana were the everyday betrayals and unbearable boredom that came just as easily at home. Home was Venice Beach, where Moose passed her days snorting cocaine from her neighbor's carpet, flirting with elderly men who begged her to spit in their faces, and dabbling in secretarial jobs, an acting career, and classes at UCLA while fighting an overpowering sense of ennui at every turn. Life was not turning out to be a cabaret, she often mused between tokes. In a search for meaning, she mined her experience as the daughter of an abusive psychology teacher and neurotically passive economics teacher to come up with such mathematically-based psychological insights as: ``Intelligence plus irritation multiplied by time equals knowledge squared,'' and ``Duration of patience with X divided by duration of time with X equals enjoyment of X.'' Such gems of wisdom--along with ``I think it likely that the Virgin Mary got pregnant from a hot tub,'' and ``Have you ever noticed how much police cars look like saddle shoes?''--drift through this lugubrious rap session like sweet-smelling smoke, leaving behind that hung-over, cotton-mouth feeling. California weeping, in need of a firmer editorial hand. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.