Featuring . . . Where's My Wand? by Eric Poole

This Friday and every Friday for the next couple of months, I will be featuring a book that was published under the Amy Einhorn Books imprint. I am starting with the 2009 books and will spotlight them in alphabetical order by year.

This week I'm featuring Eric Poole's Where's My Wand?, a memoir with the telling subtitle of One Boy's Magical Triumph over Alienation and Shag Carpeting. The release date for the book is just days away--May 27.

The publisher introduces us to Poole by putting him in the same room with Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris, and David Rakoff. Sounds promising, doesn't it? Here is the book summary:

Set in the Midwest of the 1970's, this memoir evokes that idyllic, old-school time before computers and cell phones, when people were horrible to one another face-to-face.

From an early age, Eric Poole was obsessed with Endora of TV's Bewitched. Just days after arriving at the family's new home in St. Louis, Missouri, eight-year-old Eric had staked out the basement as his special place: a spot where he could secretly perform magical incantations--draped in a tattered white bedspread he prayed his obsessive-compulsive mother wouldn't miss--as an antidote to his alienation.

This is a book for fans of Augusten Burroughs and TV's Malcolm in the Middle. Eric Poole's stories take readers on a hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking journey in which the magic in his life slowly morphs from childhood wonder to religious dogma to an understanding that the real, true magic is believing in yourself.

I've always had a soft spot for books that are set in my home territory. Although I didn't grow up in Missouri, I was raised in the Midwest, and I know how Midwesterners can be.

After I read the Kirkus review, I added this book to my must-read list: "The real charm of the book lies in the authenticity of the humor. There is not one forced moment in the book, nor is there a stitch of disingenuous manipulation to get a cheap laugh or manufacture a setup to a joke."

I also love Poole's biography (from Amazon): "Eric Poole is the secret love child of Fran Lebowitz and David Sedaris. But oddly taller. . . . Eric was once called "the best undiscovered writer I've ever met" by Tracey Ullman, an accolade he continues to live up to."

This book was featured as part of the Amy Einhorn Books Reading Challenge (click to join the fun). For information about the imprint, please read Amy Einhorn's open letter posted here on January 25, 2010.

Where's My Wand? at an Indie

Where's My Wand? at Powell's
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Published by Putnam/Amy Einhorn, May 27, 2010
ISBN-13: 9780399156557