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May 2008 Book Review: Drink to the Lasses
Ah, St. Mary’s College. The name conjures up myriad
images of my school days, spent in academic splendor
amongst the tree-lined avenue, the goose-lined lake, and
(in winter months, or late at night) the majestic
underground steam tunnels. Those steam tunnels have
long since been sealed off forever from students. But
readers can revisit the St. Mary’s of a decade ago in Mary
Beth Ellis’s book Drink to the Lasses: Notes From a
Women’s College Womb (Cold Tree Press, $10.95).
Make no mistake: Drink to the Lasses is no misty-eyed
nostalgia. Neither is it a collection of spring break stories
that would horrify even the most hardened of college-
student parents, nor a treatise on the relationship between
St. Mary’s and its famous green-wearing “brother” school.
The Leprechaun and his ilk do come up as Mary Beth
narrates her personal tale of campus life from freshman
year to graduation. She does not shy away from
describing her struggles with Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder, but this is not a how-I overcame-my-disease
story.
Instead, Drink to the Lasses is an unrelentingly funny read
that skillfully combines all of the above. Mary Beth Ellis
honed her comedic skills in her years working on the St.
Mary’s/Notre Dame/Holy Cross newspaper The Observer.
Since then, she’s further refined her humor with her blog
www.BlondeChampagne.com. In Drink to the Lasses she
focuses her comedy beam on subjects such as going to
dances with various blind dates, the dangers of room
selection, and the dissection of a fetal pig.
Current and former SMC Chicks and Domers will enjoy this
book, as will their parents, and members of the extended
St. Mary’s and Notre Dame family. So will anyone who’s
about to go off to college for the first time; read this book
and be warned. Drink to the Lasses is also recommended
for anyone who wants to laugh along with a witty peek into
the lives of college women.
By Erin E. Schmidt
Ah, St. Mary’s College. The name conjures up myriad
images of my school days, spent in academic splendor
amongst the tree-lined avenue, the goose-lined lake, and
(in winter months, or late at night) the majestic
underground steam tunnels. Those steam tunnels have
long since been sealed off forever from students. But
readers can revisit the St. Mary’s of a decade ago in Mary
Beth Ellis’s book Drink to the Lasses: Notes From a
Women’s College Womb (Cold Tree Press, $10.95).
Make no mistake: Drink to the Lasses is no misty-eyed
nostalgia. Neither is it a collection of spring break stories
that would horrify even the most hardened of college-
student parents, nor a treatise on the relationship between
St. Mary’s and its famous green-wearing “brother” school.
The Leprechaun and his ilk do come up as Mary Beth
narrates her personal tale of campus life from freshman
year to graduation. She does not shy away from
describing her struggles with Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder, but this is not a how-I overcame-my-disease
story.
Instead, Drink to the Lasses is an unrelentingly funny read
that skillfully combines all of the above. Mary Beth Ellis
honed her comedic skills in her years working on the St.
Mary’s/Notre Dame/Holy Cross newspaper The Observer.
Since then, she’s further refined her humor with her blog
www.BlondeChampagne.com. In Drink to the Lasses she
focuses her comedy beam on subjects such as going to
dances with various blind dates, the dangers of room
selection, and the dissection of a fetal pig.
Current and former SMC Chicks and Domers will enjoy this
book, as will their parents, and members of the extended
St. Mary’s and Notre Dame family. So will anyone who’s
about to go off to college for the first time; read this book
and be warned. Drink to the Lasses is also recommended
for anyone who wants to laugh along with a witty peek into
the lives of college women.
By Erin E. Schmidt
| Book Review |
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In last month’s book review, I brought you Drink to the Lasses by my Saint Mary’s College classmate Mary Beth
Ellis. This month, Notre Dame gets its turn in the literary spotlight. When Shadows Fell at Notre Dame ($14.95
from iUniverse) is the second novel from journalist and Notre Dame alumnus Peter K. Connolly.
As the novel opens, 70-year-old Mark Haverty is having a heart attack. As he tries to decide what to do, he
remembers the events of fifty years ago, during his days at Notre Dame. “Try as I might,” he says to himself,
“I’ve never been able to blot out the images of that night.”
“That night,” the reader will come to find out, was both terrifying and life-changing for young Mark. But before
he has to face it, he arrives on campus as a naive freshman from New York state. Mark must cope with the
academic and religious rigors of Notre Dame, back in the days when the university was exclusively male and
attending church services was not optional. Mark’s grades, and his party-hearty roommates, are his biggest
concern before a routine journalism assignment leads him to a worldly South Bend librarian named Notre
Dame is certainly that.
Ellis. This month, Notre Dame gets its turn in the literary spotlight. When Shadows Fell at Notre Dame ($14.95
from iUniverse) is the second novel from journalist and Notre Dame alumnus Peter K. Connolly.
As the novel opens, 70-year-old Mark Haverty is having a heart attack. As he tries to decide what to do, he
remembers the events of fifty years ago, during his days at Notre Dame. “Try as I might,” he says to himself,
“I’ve never been able to blot out the images of that night.”
“That night,” the reader will come to find out, was both terrifying and life-changing for young Mark. But before
he has to face it, he arrives on campus as a naive freshman from New York state. Mark must cope with the
academic and religious rigors of Notre Dame, back in the days when the university was exclusively male and
attending church services was not optional. Mark’s grades, and his party-hearty roommates, are his biggest
concern before a routine journalism assignment leads him to a worldly South Bend librarian named Notre
Dame is certainly that.
Barb. Barb holds the key to a mystery dating
back to Notre Dame’s founding.
Clearly, Connolly did extensive research into
Notre Dame history to write this novel,
lending his fiction an almost documentary-
like feel. Familiar details about South Bend,
such as the Polish-speaking priests of St.
Casimir’s, are also sprinkled liberally through
the book.
So are clever literary references. Edgar
Allan Poe’s “To Helen” will never be the
same again. For me, the icing on the cake
came at the beginning of chapter two. Mark
finds out that his room number in Breen-
Phillips Hall is 451, and thinks immediately of
Ray Bradbury’s story “The Fireman” (later to
become Ray Bradbury’s classic novel,
Fahrenheit 451). A novelist who loves Notre
Dame, knows South Bend (even if it is the
South Bend of a bygone era) and reads the
American classics is bound to tell a good
story. When Shadows Fell at Notre Dame is
certainly that.
back to Notre Dame’s founding.
Clearly, Connolly did extensive research into
Notre Dame history to write this novel,
lending his fiction an almost documentary-
like feel. Familiar details about South Bend,
such as the Polish-speaking priests of St.
Casimir’s, are also sprinkled liberally through
the book.
So are clever literary references. Edgar
Allan Poe’s “To Helen” will never be the
same again. For me, the icing on the cake
came at the beginning of chapter two. Mark
finds out that his room number in Breen-
Phillips Hall is 451, and thinks immediately of
Ray Bradbury’s story “The Fireman” (later to
become Ray Bradbury’s classic novel,
Fahrenheit 451). A novelist who loves Notre
Dame, knows South Bend (even if it is the
South Bend of a bygone era) and reads the
American classics is bound to tell a good
story. When Shadows Fell at Notre Dame is
certainly that.
| Click on the Book Cover to read more about Managing Fibromyalgia by local author Pati Chandler |
