I had Regina Barreca for a special topics class entitled "Revenge in Literature" in the fall of 1993; this book was published in 1994. Over a decade ago I read her They Used to Call Me Snow White...But I Drifted and Perfect Husbands and Other Fairy Tales, and I enjoyed the hell outta her class, but there is no way I would have slogged through this current book in its entirety if RDC and I weren't in the acknowledgements (him by name, me only in the conglomerate sense of her students) and, primarily, if I were not crippled by nostalgia.
I was expecting more revenge in literature and less revenge in pop culture, some literature, and a passel of anecdotes. Even the typeface gave it away: I might not have read anything in that large a point size since I progressed beyond Syd Hoff. She writes for a popular audience, and I should have known better.