Blink Book Review Two-Fer: “It Was an Ugly Couch Anyway” and “Good Apple” by Elizabeth Passarella
October 22, 2026
By Reba Hull Campbell
South Carolina writer
A friend’s recommendation led me to listen to It Was an Ugly Couch Anyway by Elizabeth Passarella. Yet another book I judged by its cover – both the title and cover art drew me in.
I enjoyed it so much I immediately downloaded her earlier debut book, Good Apple: Tales of a Southern Evangelical in New York, and loved that one almost as much.
Passarella is Southern by birth and New Yorker by choice. She grew up in Memphis and attended UNC. But after 25-plus years in Manhattan, she’s morphed into a true New Yorker.
Both books are collections of personal essays where Passarella finds humor and humanity in the irreverent and mundane moments of everyday life. She freely shares stories about her family, including some tales that might make the rest of us squirm at the thought of putting our loved ones’ quirks on such public display. Never mean stories – sometimes just a bit of recognizable raw truth that hits home.
Humorous disconnects and familiar tensions
Passarella’s essays are chock-full of life’s humorous disconnects and familiar tensions. She tackles contradictions of all sorts with such directness, and that’s part of what makes her essays so relatable.
Passarella says she’s a people disruptor and not a people pleaser – the exact opposite of my style. Another reason to love her perspectives.
I particularly enjoyed the push and pull that threads through both books between her strong evangelical Christian faith and her evolving political views as she moved from her Southern Republican upbringing to identifying as a New York Democrat.
Passarella also brings her Southern sensibilities to raising children in New York. She instills in her three kids the art of the handwritten thank-you note (a passion I share), but acknowledges that other Southern traditions, particularly good manners, require some flexibility.
She has settled on an approach of knowing when to “hold ‘em” and when to “fold ‘em” where formal Southern manners are concerned. This preserves the values behind the traditions while recognizing that not every Southern rule translates to Manhattan life.
My favorite “characters”
Two “characters” I loved best show up throughout her essays – but they aren’t actually people.
One is the ugly couch of the title, a fixture from Passarella’s childhood Memphis home. Over the years, the couch became a symbol of change, adulting, love, loss and ultimately redemption. I love how the story comes full circle through a series of essays when the sofa’s upholstery finds new life on a smaller piece of furniture in her family’s New York apartment.
That leads me to the second “character” – the apartment itself. Passarella’s family bought and renovated (after much angst) a larger apartment in the building where they’d happily lived for years. The challenges of buying and fixing it up thread through many of the essays.
Then there’s Lois, the former owner of the apartment, who figures prominently in the story. An unexpected afterword interview with Lois in the audiobook fills in the backstory of the apartment sale. A true gem!
The theme of raising a family in a small Manhattan apartment and the relationships they formed in their building shows up often in both books. I was especially intrigued by Passarella’s affection for New York and the sense of community her family finds in that complex city – particularly during COVID as neighbors offered help of all types to one another.
The girlfriends
But most important, what would a good memoir be without girlfriends? I love Passarella’s stories about high school girlfriends from Memphis who continue finding ways to connect despite the years and miles separating them.
Passarella notes that girls’ trips should probably be dubbed women’s trips at this point in her life. But no. They will always be girls. As will my girlfriends. (My “Lucky Duck” story of a decades’ long girls’ circle is here)
The Ugly Couch chapter entitled “Funerals Are the New Girls’ Trip” hit particularly close to home. I remember my mom always telling us, “Just go to the funeral.” Passarella’s stories about being there for your people hit so close to experiences I’ve had in recent years on both the giving and receiving ends of funeral kindnesses. I cried a little during this chapter.
Like The Irish Goodbye by Beth Ann Fennelly, which I reviewed this summer, Passarella’s two books reminded me how much I love the art of the micro-memoir (credit to Fennelly for that descriptor). Passarella has a gift for finding a bigger story in everyday experiences. Plus, I love reading and learning from writers who do the micro-memoir so well.
Between these two books and my recent read of This Dog Will Change Your Life, another dog-gone good glimpse into daily life in NYC, I feel like I’ve made a couple of new friends in these authors who I wish I could look up when I visit the Big Apple in November.
In 2022, Reba Campbell set out to get off the screens and back to books for the summer. Her accountability was writing short Blink Book Reviews (so short you can read them in a blink). Now it’s an annual summer (and occasional through the year) thing here. Join Reba’s Blink Book Review Facebook group to follow along. Reba is president of Columbia, SC-based The Medway Group and can be reached at [email protected].
