Odd Socks (Ilsa Evans, Macmillan, $30 pb, ISBN 140503646X, March) HHH

Ilsa Evans, author of Spin Cycle, Drip Dry and now Odd Socks has a mission to celebrate the ordinary in life. Enter divorcee mother of two Terry Diamond and her fairly typical suburban life: mismatched boyfriend, bearable job, tricky family life and a best friend with a Rudolph-the-reindeer fetish … See! That’s just what the author does. She lulls you along with fairly innocuous everyday banter from Terry (the middle-aged Bridget Jones) but then surprises you with something quirky that has you snorting with laughter. Amongst ordinary baby showers lurk over-sexed guinea-pigs, lethal depilatory cream and the everyday wonder of human interaction (a la Seinfeld). The effect that Richard has on Terry is powerful and a welcome serious dimension to Odd Socks. Somehow the author manages to make believable a psychoanalysis of Terry by her best friend with the reindeer fetish, and she makes you like and care about the characters. The dialogue is direct and humorous to match the characters, and there is a chaotic pace to everything that makes reading enjoyable. However, just like odd socks themselves, there are times when this book needed a bit of culling. As extraordinary as the ordinary can be, sometimes too much information can tip the balance.

This article from Australian Bookseller & Publisher magazine is reproduced by kind permission of Thorpe-Bowker, a division of R R Bowker LLC. © Copyright 2005, Thorpe-BowkerMichelle Atkins is freelance writer