Book Review — Rose Mula's If These are Laugh Lines I'm Having Way Too Much Fun

by Mary McHugh

 

You should get this book just for the title alone!  I laughed all through Rose Mula’s essays.  I know I don’t have to tell seniorwomen.com readers how funny she is because you read her column every month, but you might want to have all of them in one place so you can read your favorites whenever you need cheering up.    

        

It’s hard to pick the ones I like best out of this book because I love them all, but I’ll try. For purely personal reasons, I love “How I Found God in Limbo-Land” because when she made that trip to Bermuda, I was there at the same hotel and met this warm, witty, charming woman for the first time. I was writing an article for Cosmopolitan about one of their executives and Rose was there as an assistant to that same executive, and we were both enthralled by the 100 square dancers who had do-si-doed their way to the island for a convention.  And besides that, George Sheehan the marathoner was also there and he made passes at both of us.  

 

Rose and I sat on the beach and laughed our way through the weekend and have been friends ever since. She has written about that whole hilarious weekend much more entertainingly than I have described it here.  Just read it.  You’ll love it.          

 

And I also love the one called “I Remember (Il) Papa” about her father who looked so much like John Paul II that people asked him to show up at birthday parties and startle the guests who were momentarily bowled over by an appearance of the Pope.  I met Rose’s father and he was the dearest man and it’s too bad he wasn’t really the Pope.  We’d have world peace.  But Rose writes so lovingly of her father and makes you laugh at the same time at his delight in surprising people.            

 

One essay that wasn’t in her seniorwomen.com column was “Who’s That Old Fogey Who Claims to Be Me?” about an old lady who showed up in her mirror without being asked and “added a roll of flab around my middle, she cancelled my subscription to Cosmo and enrolled me in AARP, and she even dumped my cute boyfriend and replaced him with a white-haired guy I don’t even recognize.”  We all know this old lady and wish she would get out of our mirrors, but this is a hilarious reminder of what age has done to us.          

 

Rose’s wonderfully funny takes on insomnia, clothes, losing stuff, traveling light, fear of swimming, computer glitches, cooking with Joan Fontaine, naturally curly hair, sex, and many other parts of our life that suddenly seems a lot easier to take because of Rose’s light touch.          

As you may gather, I highly recommend this book and suggest you run out and get a copy before you head for the beach or ride on a train or take a plane somewhere.  But only if you like to laugh. 

 

Rose Mula's new book, If These Are Laugh Lines I'm Having Way Too Much Fun, is now available at your favorite bookstore, through online bookstores, and from Pelican Publishing 800-843-1724.

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