Finished

• Diary of a Mad Bride by Laura Wolf

  Rating: *****
  
  Often you hear that a person, book, or show is witty, but it's loosely bandied praise. True wit is always a bit surprising. It's the uncommon perception, the bull's-eye shot that makes you pause and marvel for a moment. It makes you content and gleeful that someone has gotten it just so - a communion of minds with words. Laura Wolf is witty. Amy, her first person narrator channels Bridget Jones, albeit with a higher IQ. Having never been party to the inner workings of a wedding, disaster or otherwise, I don't know how likely it is for plans to go this insane, but the author creates a creditable progression of bridal events and subsequent mental disintegration.
  
  Amy is hilarious. She's by turns snide, wise, paranoid, sensible, and sarcastic. Most of the humor doesn't come from things or situations that warrant passive, observant humor, but from her own particularly bizarre thoughts on the mundane that are always unexpectedly funny and perfectly apt. The sharpness that goes with being witty balances out with the acceptably sweet bits about her fiancé and why she is getting married. Her friends and family provide the bride-to-be with challenges and support, tears and laughter, Valium and insomnia. LW skillfully, believably captures the extreme dichotomy and stable equilibrium that co-exist in real life. Mad Bride is a diamond (or should it be an emerald?) in the chicklit rough. Fluff was never so good.