Penelope Lemon is a single mom, rock and roller, and accidental subversive to all that suburban womanhood implies. Recently divorced from James, the woodsy intellectual who favors silky robes much too short for his knobby knees, Penelope finds herself--at forty--living in a small Virginia town with her randy mother, waiting tables at a place called Coonskins, and just trying to slide by the best that she can.
Life in her mother's basement could be worse, but Penelope is ready for her own place and to feel like an independent woman again. What she needs is money. And quick. Unfortunately, obstacles arise: a bullying situation with her son, Theo, something of a gastric wonder on the school bus; the discovery of nude photos of herself on the Internet from her carefree college days that aren't quite as "artistic" as she'd like to remember; and the sundry complications that come along when she makes her first foray into the complex world of online dating. Hijinks ensue when she meets a wild card new friend who helps her (sometimes a little too forcefully) to get back on her feet.
Penelope Lemon: Game On is a fun-house mirror look at what it means to be a modern mother, balancing parental duties, jobs, and the vagaries of middle-age. Penelope is that friend who is always willing to go along with whatever hare-brained scheme you come up with. That friend who smilingly ignores all your good advice. That friend who reminds you, after all is said and done, that the safe, sterile, predictable life is really no kind of life at all.
Bold, ribald, and laugh out loud funny, Penelope Lemon: Game On covers the terrain of being newly divorced, getting back in the game, and managing single motherhood in a small town with renegade humor and heart.