Higher Math: The Book Moose Minnion Never Wrote: A Novel

Did you hear the one about the woman who had an allergic reaction to a Brazil nut, fell into a coma and then published a book--this one-- pre -posthumously? Seems she'd led an eclectic life--actress, student, bread dough sculptress, stand-up comic (like the author), game-show contestant--and had left a written record of notebook scribblings and journal entries.These jottings, some found in a sewing box, others on cocktail napkins and computer discs, were collected by various friends and bound together in a book titled Higher Math while the woman, Marissa ``Moose'' Minnion, lay comatose on her deathbed. Readers may initially be amused and intrigued by the concept and may even want to follow the patient through a turbulent childhood (her mother points a gun at her in one particularly harrowing episode), a disastrous love-life (with boyfriends named Husk and T. Rex and Roman) and her prize-winning stint on Crosswits (cheese and bathroom cleaning products duly awarded). But, eventually, for most readers the pastiche of jokes will wear thin and the laughs fall limp before Ball gets to the punchline. Author tour. (Nov.)