Rating: 
Summary: Striving to be Eccentric
Review: I like Holly. I would love to have a friend like her. She is witty and observant with a keen eye for the absurd. I am from Atlanta so the neighborhoods are familiar. The previous reviews about the episodic nature of the book are accurate. The book is a compillation of the articles she wroth in Creative Loafing, a counter culture magazine for the quasi-bohemian population of Atlanta.
There are a lot of clever witicisms in the book. It just gets tedious after a while because it becomes obvious that she is trying too hard to be eccentric. I have no doubt that she marches to a different drummer, but at some point the reading experience transitions from one of reading interesting anecdotes to one of reading creative fiction.
Her personal relationships seem somewhat self-consciously premeditated to be nutty and fun. Like the sitcom Friends, her friends do outrageously self-absorbed and thoughtless things that are reframed to be idiosyncratic, clever, and entertaining.
Its all too contrived, but still interesting. They fit easily into the stereotypes of outrageous behavior that parallel the folks who live in the urban slums that she haunts and romanticizes.
I think that Hollis, in her real personal life, is nowhere near as blithely marginally adjusted as she represents herself in this book. Much of the book is entertaining, but you do want to put it down after you have read about 30% of its content. It becomes redundant.
I would certainly like to meet her. Everyone should have a friend with her perspective.
Rating: 
Summary: There goes the neighborhood!
Review: I love this hilarious, engaging memoir. Hollis Gillespie (which in German means, "hellish gargoyle") writes with unflinching honesty and undeniable wit. The memoir is a collection of old journal entries in which Hollis wrote about her family woes, career developments and adventures with her eccentric friends. I sort of expected this book to be a witty take on life, but what I hadn't expected was the dark and quirky humor. I loved it! Her mother's job building bombs for the government, the constant moving around and her strange friends -- namely Lary, the one obsessed with death and suicide -- made me laugh from beginning to end. This is one hilarious memoir! Highly recommended...
Rating:
Summary: There goes the neighborhood!
Review: I love this hilarious, engaging memoir. Hollis Gillespie (which in German means, "hellish gargoyle") writes with unflinching honesty and undeniable wit. The memoir is a collection of old journal entries in which Hollis wrote about her family woes, career developments and adventures with her eccentric friends. I sort of expected this book to be a witty take on life, but what I hadn't expected was the dark and quirky humor. I loved it! Her mother's job building bombs for the government, the constant moving around and her strange friends -- namely Lary, the one obsessed with death and suicide -- made me laugh from beginning to end. This is one hilarious memoir! Highly recommended...
Rating: 
Summary: More Than Funny
Review: I read this book for all the wrong reasons, and you probably will, too. The cover is colorful and cheerful. There are photos of the author, Hollis Gillespie, mugging playfully on many of the pages. The reviews compare Gillespie to Erma Bombeck. The author bio says she is a flight attendant and language specialist, jobs that lend themselves to comedy routines. In short, this looked like a quick, funny book.Gillespie is no Erma Bombeck. I like Erma Bombeck, but Gillespie is better. When Gillespie wants to be funny, she can leave you hiccuping with laughter. Her chapter on a trip to X-rated Amsterdam with her family and another on her adventures as a bad translator are priceless. But most of the time, Gillespie is talking about her offbeat friends and downscale neighborhood, or about her unconventional childhood and her, um, eccentric parents. If she were inclined to dwell on how she was denied a normal childhood (whatever that is) and blame her parents for their faults, she would have plenty of ammunition. Instead, she refuses to be the victim. She looks back on the mistakes her parents made and seems to understand. The essays in BHHB are very short, most are only two pages. What Gillespie manages to pack into these short pieces is amazing. After several of the essays, I felt as if she had taken the whirlwind of memories that sometimes overwhelm you in the middle of the night when you can't sleep, and condensed them into something that makes sense. The writing is incredible. Gillespie is like one of those artists who paints a few strokes and you think, well, that wasn't much, but then you realize how much those few strokes reveal. The genius is in knowing when to quit and to let the viewer, or reader, fill in the blanks. So if the kicky title, the irreverent design, the promise of a laugh riot pull you into reading this, fine. You will not be disappointed. And you'll get a lot more besides.
Rating:
Summary: loved it!
Review: I've been faithfully reading Hollis's columns in CL for a little over three years and when I heard that she had a book coming out I was on amazon like a minute later. Her columns are always honest, hilarious!, inspring, thought-provoking, and accurate, and the book is equally as great. I'd recommend it to anyone, and my best friends already have their copies on the way.
Rating:
Summary: SOMETHING BIG
Review: If Hollis Gillespie's first novel, "Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch," is any indication of what is yet to come from this writer's slightly twisted mind, she certainly does not have to worry about continuing her job as a flight attendant in order to pay her bills. An aspect of the book that I find so attractive is its total honesty. Don't look for many politically correct references here. Hollis calls it like she sees it, which I find very refreshing in today's social climate. While the book was actually written as a succession of unrelated commentaries, it seems to flow into an almost seamless story of her search for self-acceptance, roots and a place to call home. Because each chapter is so short and compelling, it makes the book an exceptionally easy-read. It's hard to put it down once you've begun the journey into her world, and her unique perspective. At times, laugh-out-loud funny, at times touching and poignant, the overall experience is uplifting and life affirming. Congratulations Hollis. This is definitely the start of something big.
Rating:
Summary: So Honest it Hurts
Review: Sadly I knew not of Hollis Gillespie until I happened upon a taping of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno while vacationing in Los Angeles. She happened to be on the show, and from the moment she spoke, I knew that I was going to have to pick up her book. Well, I did, and I consider myself very lucky that I happened upon that taping. Her words are like a Ginsu knife, with a lifetime guarantee of being sharp. She's so honest with her past it's almost painful (in a good way.. if that makes sense. And no, I'm not into BDSM). Hollis has this amazing ability to start out writing on an idea, expand upon it to the point where you're wondering if she lost track, and then she wraps it up so beautifully. It's a rare talent that few authors posses, but all desire. I find this book amazing, and I find Hollis to be a remarkable woman who has overcome obstacles and still come out strong.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as funny as it sounds
Review: Sure, there are some moments of humor in this book but it is only to reel you in close enough so the author can sucker-punch you with some precious anecdote that's supposed to leave you grinning stupidly and wondering what just happened to the makings of a perfectly good story. I liked the fact that the "chapters" were short (2-3 pages each) but they all had a formula. Start off with a real zinger; something shocking and gritty to make you interested. This last for an entire paragraph before she delves into a non-related story about her childhood or something and then it's magically supposed to come together at the end with a sugar-coated finale of "I guess we still have a lot to learn afterall" B.S. She really needs to get over the fact that Mommy didn't hug her enough and that Daddy drank. She wasn't abused or molested so she needs to stop patting her own back for surviving the imagined odds stacked up against her. She has a good life and some colorful friends. It's those few stories that are actually worth reading but they are intermixed with all of the dull elaborations of her childhood that are better left in the therapist's office. If you can stomach the sobs of unfulfilled youthful dreams you might actually enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: The recollections of a hellish gargoyle who talks on NPR
Review: The fact that Hollis Gillespie is a commentator on NPR is more important to know than the fact that her name translates into "Hellish Gargoyle" because it provides a big hint as to how you should read "Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch: Tales from a Bad Neighborhood." I made the mistake of reading the book pretty much straight through on connecting airplane flights, which I thought was appropriate since Gillespie worked as a flight attendant as well as a foreign-language interpreter, but that proved not to be the case. There are several dozen commentaries in this book (you cannot really upgrade them to the status of either chapters or essays), almost all of which are in the two to four page range in terms of length. Consequently, the ideal way of reading this book is to put it on the nightstand and to read a couple of entries each night before you go to sleep. Actually the best way of thinking of this book is as a collection of conversations. This makes a big difference because Gillespie tends to repeat herself from time to time in terms of phrases, descriptions, and events. If this was a paper written by a student I would make sage comments about not arguing the same thing in two different places, but if this is a conversation you just acknowledge that you have heard this part before and let Gillespie continue to tell her story. As with any conversation some parts are better than others. For my money the first one, where Gillespie explains that her first name means "hellish" in bad German and that her translation abilities consist of massacred phrases pronounced perfectly, is the funniest in the entire book (plus it is a more accurate title than what she has, which was just a passing insult by a guy she was trying to run down with her car). This makes for getting off of the right foot, but it also suggests a way in which it is all down hill from here. That is not really the case, because there are some gems scattered throughout the book, such as "The Long Good-bye." Her relationship with the lesbian ghost in her house is interesting, but clearly not as important as her relationship with her dying mother. There is as almost as much pathos in this book as their is humor. Those looking for a narrative theme have picked up the wrong book. Gillespie writes about her family and her friends, as well as the various trials and travails that assail a young woman in the world today. There are some photographs, taken by the aforementioned family and friends, scattered throughout the book and one of them seems particularly insightful. It shows Hollis standing next to her siblings and the family dog, Echo. Kim, Cheryl, and Jim and all wearing solid colors and standing up straight, while little Hollis in her plaid dress is standing wit her legs at an angle. If this is not a sight of what is to come, then I do not know foreshadowing. However, the key psychological insult comes when Gillespie confesses she collects old pictures that she finds at flea markets and thrift stores. The pictures of her own family have long been abandoned and now just clutter the empty corridors of her memory, and she has replaced them with new ones. Reading that revelation it becomes clear what key roles Daniel, Grant, and Lary play in her life. This is one of those books where you can pick up a lot in between the lines.
Rating:
Summary: The recollections of a hellish gargoyle who talks on NPR
Review: The fact that Hollis Gillespie is a commentator on NPR is more important to know than the fact that her name translates into "Hellish Gargoyle" because it provides a big hint as to how you should read "Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch: Tales from a Bad Neighborhood." I made the mistake of reading the book pretty much straight through on connecting airplane flights, which I thought was appropriate since Gillespie worked as a flight attendant as well as a foreign-language interpreter, but that proved not to be the case. There are several dozen commentaries in this book (you cannot really upgrade them to the status of either chapters or essays), almost all of which are in the two to four page range in terms of length. Consequently, the ideal way of reading this book is to put it on the nightstand and to read a couple of entries each night before you go to sleep. Actually the best way of thinking of this book is as a collection of conversations. This makes a big difference because Gillespie tends to repeat herself from time to time in terms of phrases, descriptions, and events. If this was a paper written by a student I would make sage comments about not arguing the same thing in two different places, but if this is a conversation you just acknowledge that you have heard this part before and let Gillespie continue to tell her story. As with any conversation some parts are better than others. For my money the first one, where Gillespie explains that her first name means "hellish" in bad German and that her translation abilities consist of massacred phrases pronounced perfectly, is the funniest in the entire book (plus it is a more accurate title than what she has, which was just a passing insult by a guy she was trying to run down with her car). This makes for getting off of the right foot, but it also suggests a way in which it is all down hill from here. That is not really the case, because there are some gems scattered throughout the book, such as "The Long Good-bye." Her relationship with the lesbian ghost in her house is interesting, but clearly not as important as her relationship with her dying mother. There is as almost as much pathos in this book as their is humor. Those looking for a narrative theme have picked up the wrong book. Gillespie writes about her family and her friends, as well as the various trials and travails that assail a young woman in the world today. There are some photographs, taken by the aforementioned family and friends, scattered throughout the book and one of them seems particularly insightful. It shows Hollis standing next to her siblings and the family dog, Echo. Kim, Cheryl, and Jim and all wearing solid colors and standing up straight, while little Hollis in her plaid dress is standing wit her legs at an angle. If this is not a sight of what is to come, then I do not know foreshadowing. However, the key psychological insult comes when Gillespie confesses she collects old pictures that she finds at flea markets and thrift stores. The pictures of her own family have long been abandoned and now just clutter the empty corridors of her memory, and she has replaced them with new ones. Reading that revelation it becomes clear what key roles Daniel, Grant, and Lary play in her life. This is one of those books where you can pick up a lot in between the lines.
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