To prep for my interview with Sloane Crosley, author of I Was Told There’d Be Cake, I perused her web site and read her book. I figure I’d learn something about her just by her writing style. The investment in the book was well worth it. And the interview? Let’s just say, “Best interview ever.”

Once I read Sloane’s book, I had a real feel for her as a person. Well, as much of a feel one could have for a woman who has no qualms in telling the world she forgot to put on underwear one day (see the very last paragraph of the book), and being reminded of that fact only after she flew off her bike, and over top of the handle bars, cementing her 11-year-old body to the ground.

Once a person reveals those types of details about themselves (generally filed under TMI), you can ask them anything. So instead of the usual stodgy questioning, we just kicked it like two pimpled-faced teens on a weekend binge from boarding school. Yes, Sloane’s my new best girlfriend.

I can’t discuss Sloane, the woman, without talking about her book – a collection of essays from various time periods throughout her young, but quite interesting life. She delivers each passage like an in-your-face Erma Bombeck: humorous, like Erma, but with much more of an edge. (Refer to the title on page 91, which is unprintable here.) I never laughed so long and so hard than while reading this book, at one point even forcing myself to put it down, for fear of dying from laughter. This woman will name names. And although she insists several names were changed, I still get the feeling you wouldn’t want to commit any crimes with her around. She’d crack in intricate detail and wouldn’t lose sleep doing it. But you’d at least laugh all the way to the big house.

Make no mistake though. With all her humor, all her witty insight, Sloane Crosley is serious about writing. When asked whether she cared what others thought of her writing, and if she used family and friends to gauge her writing before putting it all out there, she answers, “When you’re writing a personal essay, or anything personal, you sort of take a leap of faith that people are going to relate to you. It’s a weird line you have to walk between feeling completely alone in the world – so that you can go on and be sort of a social observer, and also being part of the world – so you know what the hell you’re talking about…It’s really hard to have both going full-speed at once.”

Apparently she’s mastered the technique. In her direct style, she admits to sometimes taking risks by “alienating some people” in order to speak to those who get the inside joke.

For instance, she refers to Diamond Head (see page 79), an early 60’s B-movie starring Charlton Heston as Richard “King” Howland and Yvette Mimieux as his sister, Sloane (same name is no coincidence). While reading this essay, I’m asking myself how a 20-something girl would know anything about this movie (which was clearly made before her time), but Sloane has a gift for meshing the old with the new and making sense of all of it.

For those that pick up on her subtle inside jokes, it’s sheer delight. For all the rest, all is not lost. Anyone who’s ever been asked to be part of a wedding can understand the humor behind her bridesmaid dilemma (see You on a Stick, page 141), an unrelenting bridesmaid nightmare from beginning to end.

During our interview, Sloane admits that, although the essay is humorous, the point was to make “a larger commentary about female friendships, and what you [as females] are obliged to do, and how that changes…what you lose as things get busier, and there’s less room for people in your life,” which now explains Sloane’s surprising hint of vulnerability in one brief moment of the essay. By story’s end, she finds solidarity among her fellow bridesmaids.

Sloane’s collection of essays reveals a precocious child who (1) finds Jesus at summer camp (although she’s of Jewish descent); and (2) boasts the largest Christmas tree in the neighborhood (as her Jewish father reasons, “Why borrow a holiday when you can steal one?”). And all the while growing into a contemplative adult who (3) experiences anxiety over the thought of her parents visiting her apartment if she should meet an untimely death; (4) after realizing the absurdity of her collection of ponies abandons them on a sticky, stinky city bus; and (my personal favorite), baking a large cookie in the likeness of her employer (read The Ursula Cookie, page 29), an intensely, arrogant woman, reminiscent of Streep’s Devil-Wears-Prada.

Sloane is a dichotomy of sorts. A self-described “80-year-old woman trapped in a 29-year-old body,” she’s obviously sharp on pop culture, yet she tells me she doesn’t have cable. And while she’s a successful author, she admits there’s no Internet in her home. She reminds me of a female George Carlin: funny, but almost apologetic. Sloane has no need to force it; it’s just there. She doesn’t have to be hilarious; she already is. Some things just are. And Sloane’s one of them.

There’s just no telling where she'll end up next, but trust me: Sloane Crosley’s a trip you wouldn’t want to miss.

Judith Brown is a published freelance writer from Harrisburg, PA. In addition to Art Nouveau magazine, she is also a regular contributing editor for Positively Celebrity; and Fancast, an online TV and movie site. She is also a noted author for EzineArticles.com, and has been quoted in Advertising Age, the industry standard in advertising and marketing.