Review: IT’S MY F---ING BIRTHDAY by Merrill Markoe

It's My F---ing Birthday unfolds in seven state-of-my-life addresses a hapless high school art teacher writes to herself on consecutive birthdays. Through outrageously funny years of needling parents, self-absorbed boy-friends, riots, O.J., and Monica, she navigates a circuitous (and ultimately successful) route to happiness in a world where everything seems to conspire to the contrary.

My thoughts: First off, I loved the title! It was the first thing that grabbed me. Then it all just hits you with this morbid and candid humor.

The book basically chronicles every birthday since her thirties. Everybody knows birthdays are depressing. The parents are so arrogant and critical. Who wouldn’t want to hang themselves? And why would the ex-boyfriend send flowers? Weird.

The nameless narrator explains all the misery in her life and the mistakes she hopes to avoid in the coming years. At times, her bitterness and constant bitching became a bit of a bore that I wondered why I kept reading. Is there a point? Is there a story here?

She also got a little vulgar when it came to men and sex. Yap, yap, yap—she doesn’t stop yapping! Even though the yapping was filtered with snarky and witty comments, it kind of stops being funny after a while.  The character was obsessive and neurotic with serious self-esteem issues. She will always be that “dumb girl.”

My rating: 3 stars