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The unsuspecting public is in for a treat in this book as Mariko Tamaki shares humour, sensitivity, love, joy, pain, social commentary, complaints (about everything and everyone and all places, spaces, events and things which irk the author. Mariko Tamaki is a risk taker. Her in-your-face humorous commentary on social life is innovative, clever, intelligent, artistic and sweet. The sweetness comes at the reader in a subliminal way, so that it is upon reflection that the warmth from the heart washes over you. Tamaki's love of the world and the people in it shines in her work. Even as she takes pot shots at social behaviour, there lies at the core of the work a feeling of deep, soft love. One moment, you will howl with laughter until the tears run from your eyes. By the next line of True Lies, you will find yourself reflecting on the social implications of the topics Tamaki raises. |
This writer's gift as an orator and writer lies in her capacity to disarm the reader, using humour as a great leveller. She brings the reader face to face with idiosyncrasies, prejudices, conservatism, hostilities, narrowness of vision and all of the small (and large) negative behaviours that make life difficult.
Mariko Tamaki is well respected as a performer and writer. Her first book Cover Me was published by McGilligan Books in 2000. She has performed at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre's "Strange Sisters" and at Nightwood Theatre's "FemCab". She is a founding member of the Corporate Wet Nurse Association (a secretarial performance duo) and Pretty, Porky and Pissed Off (a fat activist collective). Her work has had wide exposure, appearing in Blood and Aphorisms, Fireweed, Xtra, Turbo Chicks: Talking Young Feminisms and She's Gonna Be.