Same game, new player

There are many books out now that discuss the humorous inner-workings of the female brain. Almost too many, some would say. Amid the age of stick-thin, Ally McBeal-esque, 30-something women with very ambitious jobs who ramble on for pages at a time about how much their lives are miserable failures, there comes a newcomer. Sandra Tsing Loh throws a brightly covered, new, realistic novel into the mix. To be fair, it is almost realistic. Almost.

Loh's new novel, A Year in Van Nuys, comes as a witty response to the Peter Mayle novel, A Year in Provence. For all those geography non-majors out there, Provence is located in southern France. Van Nuys is located outside Los Angeles. Loh writes, "Van Nuys is to Los Angeles what New Jersey is to New York." To drive the point home, Van Nuys is annually rated one of the worst places to live in the country. The stage is set for character introduction.

The story's heroine, Sandra, is not your typical Ally McBeal. Sandra is no lawyer. Nor is she pulling a Bridget Jones, obsessing about her weight while the reader wonders how any grown woman weighing 125 pounds could possible have much to obsess about. Sandra weighs 152 pounds, and there is little obsessing. Interestingly enough, Sandra does not seem to have any man problems either. She is happily married. She does not have a legion of devoted friends to take her to "the city" and help her forget her woes. She does not even live in the aforementioned "city." It's not Provence. It's not exciting, aka New York, Boston or London. It's a dump. So what is left in the female brain to write about? A Year in Van Nuys is not really about any particular story line, or any particular flaw. It is written to chronicle a year of a realistic woman's life.

Divided into witty chapters, and then sub-chapters, the novel focuses on this woman, who really is old, who really is overweight, who really does have a lackluster career. The reader is assuaged ... but not for long.

Sandra is a writer. That is, a writer with writer's block. While it is true in the beginning that her life is only a tad more unrealistic than the average woman's (complete with an all-too-perfect sibling), that tad grows larger with every page. Over the course of the novel, Sandra, all the while claiming to have a lackluster career due to her "writer's block," appears on CNN, is offered a posh column-writing job at a new on-line magazine and has her own sitcom. Alas ... it was too good to be true.

However, in a spirit of continual fairness, who wants to read an entire novel about boring, everyday people? A Year in Van Nuys is fun. The story is told in a diary format, complete with date, location and temperature, as well as fun graphics, true-to-form e-mails, and sketched diagrams. Sandra is a true woman. In her diary, she writes, "I'm abandoning all efforts at personal growth. I'm giving up on all my personal-growth projects."

Alongside her feelings about personal growth, she adds humor to her faux-horrid career with witty e-mails to her new editor: "I find it ironic that you felt moved to send me literary guidelines from of all places Cosmopolitan, given that this is a 'highbrow' tome whose recent cover lines have included 'Nails, Nails, Nails!' 'Spring: The Right to Bare Arms,' 'What our Doctors Aren't Telling Us About Yeast Infections' and "Big Breasts are Back IN!'"

Written playfully, the plot sometimes disappears behind Sandra's latest rant of nonsensical irrelevance, whether it is concerning the Zone diet, or the consequences of belonging to a bargain health club. Yet it only adds to the realism. The rambling sentences are much like a realistic woman's train of thought. The novel is about life, and coming to grips with it. While the novel may not be the most original, it's truly satirical.

                   . Sandra Tsing Loh is no newcomer to the glamorous world of entertainment. Currently busy with her own radio show out of Los Angeles, Loh has also starred in two off-Broadway solo shows of her own making. Her talent does not end there. With the experience of three previous books and an award-winning short story, Loh proves to be more than just an entertainer; she is a writer.

She is a writer for the masses, as she really does live in Van Nuys, Calif. Most outgoing creative-writing professionals will always remember the day their respective teacher/professor/mentor stated the inevitable: "Write about what you know." This approach works well for Loh. After all, who better to write about a writer than ... a writer? Surrounding the writer, well, all the usual characters emerge. How original. In summation: Same game, new (slightly), more famous player.

A Year in Van Nuys, by Sandra Tsing Loh, can be purchased for $13 at any major bookstore.