Review: The Pimp and the Pork Sausage by Susan Norman . . .

Sunday 21 January 2024

**For transparency purposes, I received no remuneration for this review. However, I did receive a paperback copy of the book from Aisling Enterprises.**

I received Susan Norman’s The Pimp and the Pork Sausage last year but, my day job being as it is, I didn’t get a chance to read and review it until the Christmas holidays arrived. And to be honest, the attention that I think you need to give this book I could never have given whilst I was working.

It’s not a book that you can skim through and be done with. For me, Norman’s life story demands that you focus and give it the attention that it deserves. It’s a sometimes-harrowing recount of a life that many of us would be thankful for not having lived. And yet, here is Susan Norman, living her best life on the other side of the adversity, tragedy and challenges that she has faced down. The Pimp and the Pork Sausage is very much a, and I hesitate to use this word as it’s not a work of fiction, tale of a woman finally coming into her own.

Many of us likely have interesting, and by interesting I mean challenging, family backgrounds or lived experiences, and when we tell our stories I’m sure if we’re being honest, that we polish them up a bit. So they seem less dirty, less hurtful, less spiteful, less humiliating. Norman does not do that in her book. She lays her life bare for all to see. Violence, manipulation and control, split families, gambling, cheating, estrangement, mental health challenges, death, attempted poisoning and just wanting to die are woven through the pages of Norman’s life. That’s not to say that there isn’t a lightness in this book; at times, Norman’s words skip over the pages with humour or as a casual quip that she intends returning to further in the chapter. I probably shouldn’t have, and I have a fair idea of what it says about me, but I laughed heartily at the pork sausage incident and the addition to Susan’s father-in-law’s tea.

I found The Pimp and the Pork Sausage to be almost conversational in tone; almost like sitting with a new friend and hearing about their life. By all accounts, and there are a number of them in the book, Susan is vibrant, witty, no-nonsense, straightforward, honest and bubbly. That definitely comes through in the writing. There are no punches pulled and the language is concise. There’s nothing in this book that seems like unnecessary waffle. It’s all necessary for us as voyeurs of Susan Norman’s life, to immerse ourselves from afar in the events that made this woman who she is today. That frankness and honesty is something that is missing in today’s age of Social Media influencers and their stories. I don’t know Susan, but I feel like she would say ‘I’m not polishing turds for anyone’. She might not have said that years ago, but I instinctively feel she’d say it now.

As is the case when I do a review, you know I’m going to write that I enjoyed the book and I think you should read it. I don’t see the point of writing a review of something I don’t enjoy or slamming the work of someone who’s put everything into their book. There’s already too much negativity in the world and I’d rather write positive reviews. So, yes, I do think you should pick up a copy of The Pimp and the Pork Sausage by Susan Norman. It’s awkward to write, but there is a feeling of gratitude one feels after reading a memoir like Susan Norman’s. It’s that gratitude that ‘at least it wasn’t me going through that’. And maybe with that sense of gratitude, you, as a reader, might have more compassion for those around you. It’s that old adage of ‘be kind because you never know what someone else is going through’.

But more than that, it’s a book that shows you that being inspirational isn’t just delegated to the realm of the celebrities, the rich and famous who’ve worked their way up. It’s the inspiration that comes from seeing someone like you, an ordinary, everyday person pull themselves up adversity after challenge after tragedy after hardship free themselves and succeed, move forward, live. The Pimp and the Pork Sausage is a book you won’t be able to put down until the final page, and you’ll be cheering Susan on the whole way through.

You can order The Pimp and the Pork Sausage through Booktopia, Amazon, Kobo, and any other good bookstore.