7/29/99

Suze Hall is having a bad day. In fact, it looks like it might be a bad year. Her nemisis, Wanda, has been promoted and will be her boss, her husband, Bob, is leaving for a six-month sabbatical, and her best friend, Marcia, is involved with a new man---and you know what that means.

To top it off, there's that coincidental meeting with...David, the man who broke her heart.

Besides all that, Suze still must cook, clean, shop, carpool, run errands, and well...you get my drift.

But you know---Suze is kinda like you and me. Just a woman living in a man's world....and trying to do it all!”  (quoted from E-book website)

Karen S. Bell’s Walking With Elephants, an e-book available in PDF, Palm Pilot and Rocketbooks,  is the inside out look at the life of Suze Hall, a fictional middle aged wife, mother --and oh yeah; woman.  Recently returned to the workforce, Suze is one of many associate editors for a publishing company in transition.  She's married to a college professor and has three teenage kids.  Suze is a bit of a doormat and her insecurities and lack of confidence seem a little extreme; but the story is told from inside Suze's head and I'm sure we'd all sound like drooling idiots if our inner thoughts were continually broadcast for the world to hear. 

I have mixed feelings about Walking With Elephants; the story is interesting and funny.  The characters are memorable; from David, the old flame (will she? won't she?) and Elliott the flaming homosexual to Suze's best friend Marcia the mattress and arch enemy Wanda the jack-booted thug on the fashion police most wanted list.  But Walking With Elephants shines a light into a dark corner I find myself examining more often than is good for me. 

Why do women live the lives we do?  Why do we allow others to place demands on us that are not only virtually impossible but would probably not be reciprocated?  Why do we work all day (like our significant others) and yet still feel responsible for the dust bunnies under the sofa and junior's soccer practice?  found myself silently fuming at Suze for not standing up to her husband, children and boss; but wait -- that's my life! (Well, sort of, I can just imagine the laugh I'd get if my husband rattled off a list of errands for me to run for him).  Walking With Elephants brings to mind the question; can we really have it all? and if so, do we really want it?  But enough of the deep thoughts; Walking With Elephants has all the elements of a good book, with a little slapstick thrown in for effect. 

I found it a very satisfying read.

To buy the book, go to Bell’s website at:  http://www.geocities.com/kartim_2000/ and follow the directions on the site.