DATE: Wednesday, August 27, 1997            TAG: 9708270126

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E7   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: BOOK REVIEW 

SOURCE: BY DIANA LYNN DIEHL 

                                            LENGTH:   52 lines

COMEDIAN'S MEMOIR IS FUNNY, POIGNANT

EXPANDING ON her one-woman Broadway show, actress/comedian Julia Sweeney shares the worst year of her life in ``God Said `Ha!''' - and how she laughed her way through it.

A former cast member of NBC-TV's ``Saturday Night Live,'' Sweeney, 37, is best known for her androgynous character Pat.

After her departure from the show, the newly divorced Sweeney left New York City for Hollywood. She bought a bungalow just big enough for one person, considering it a symbol of independence. But her delightful fantasy of living alone in her charmingly decorated home, writing great screenplays and entertaining witty friends with rousing conversation and gourmet dinners evaporated ``when God just said . . . Ha!''

One month after moving into her new home, Julia's brother Mike was diagnosed with lymphoma and given only a 40 percent chance of recovery. Julia took him in, and he took over her bedroom.

Next, her parents came from Spokane, Wash., and moved into the guest room, relegating Julia to her office out in back of the bungalow.

She writes that she had ``spent years in therapy talking about my family and my parents learning how to . . . set boundaries.'' Now, there was nothing to do ``but accept the surreal nightmare that life had become.'' The lines blurred as to whose house and whose life they were.

Even the boundaries of illness converged, tragically. After a routine checkup, Julia discovered she had a rare form of cervical cancer. Mike jokingly called it her ``sympathy cancer,'' and they both dubbed the bungalow the ``International House of Cancer.''

Mike's condition worsened, and the family shifted their hopes and prayers for his recovery to an end to his suffering. Three days after her brother's death, Julia underwent a hysterectomy. Compared to the severity of Mike's illness, Julia saw her cancer as an afterthought.

Sweeney's relationship with her parents deepened throughout the traumatic year. When they left to go home Julia realized that instead of being ``a source of comedy or a reason to be in therapy,'' her ``dysfunctional'' parents were truly functional when it really mattered.

Julia Sweeney's memoir will keep you laughing, relating and - in a few places - crying through the worst year of her life. MEMO: Diana Lynn Diehl is a staff news researcher. ILLUSTRATION: BOOK REVIEW

``God Said `Ha!': Laughing Through the Worst Year of My Life''

Author: Julia Sweeney

Publisher: Bantam Books. 174 pp.

Price: $21.95

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu