The Suburban You: Reports from the Home Front

By Mark Falanga

Book Overview

You are about to discover that living in the suburbs is a whole lot funnier than you ever thought possible. For this country's 145,892,494 (give or take) suburbanites, Mark Falanga is an utterly... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0767918908
• ISBN13: 9780767918909
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Broadway
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.7"

Customer Reviews

Peter M

I have just finished Mark Falanga's "The Suburban You" and I haven't read anything recently that made me laugh so much. As a middle-aged male who has lived in the suburbs for a number of years, it has made me realize that what has seemed to be mundane is really an exciting, entertaining and humorous life. Our familial battles with our wives, our encounters with the swimming teachers/coaches, the adolescent next door, our parents' visits or the neighbor's affairs are all funny and poignant events. Falanga reminds me of Larry David's self-deprecating humor where David may find humor in standing in a cocktail party with a Sata spear, Falanga finds it in being deprived of grape juice by his wife. If you have made the move from Chicago to the North Shore, NYC to Westchester, LA to Pasadena you will truly relate and enjoy the short vignettes that Falanga writes about.

Get more laughs in a day...

My 10-year old son recently read me a statistic that kids laugh about 1400 times a day while adults are only laughing 14 times a day. Clearly this is not the case in the Falanga household, where we meet a couple who has one funny experience after another. Our family of four has read the book individually, and we often read these stories aloud. Tales about simple aspects of life such as hearing aids, holiday dinners with friends, and keeping the car windows open or closed told with a dry wit make us laugh out loud, and I am often crying from laughing so hard. I know my daily laugh quotient has increased since reading The Suburban You, (perhaps making me feel younger) and sharing laughs with my family is a joy.

the suburban ME

The Suburban You really is the suburban Me, I can relate to every anecdote that Falanga describes in humorous detail. Whether you live in the suburbs or the city you will find that The Suburban You captures all of the quirky, mundane, chaotic points of our lives and divulges the humor in every aspect of our existance. Reading a few passages in bed at night is a great way to end the day with a smile (if not rib-splitting laughter) and to help put the trials of our lives in the proper perspective. Beyond the humor I found it to be insightful and reflective on the fabric of our society...Falanga is kind of like Sienfeld meets Dr. Phil. Whatever your take is on it, you'll certainly take something from it.

The Suburban Seinfeld

I watched Al Roker interview Mark Falanga on the Today Show. Roker is accurate in his summary....Falanga's first book is "the Suburban Seinfeld". The book is a fun-filled accurate read on living in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago. Falanga's prose causes me to laugh out loud because of his unique ability to accurately capture the true humor of common suburban family living. Of course, when you finish this book you'll realize that his family must be a particular magnet for quirkiness. Great fun!

Everyone Can Relate

My whole family has read this book and we all found it to be hilarious with something that everyone can relate to in every chapter. Who doesn't have a reletive with a whistling hearing aid? Who hasn't run across the same scenes in Little League and at school functions? If you don't see the humor in your everyday suburban life, this book will give you a new slant on the world around you. A must-read if you like to laugh!