Acclaimed author Lauren Slater ruminates on what it means to be
family.
Lauren Slater's rocky childhood left her cold to the idea of ever
creating a family of her own, but a husband, two dogs, two
children, and three houses later, she came around to the
challenges, trials, and unexpected rewards of playing house. In
these autobiographical pieces, Slater presents snapshots of
domestic life, populating them with the gritty details and jarring
realities of sharing home, life, and body in the curious
institution called "family." She asks difficult questions and
probes unsettling truths about sex, love, and parenting. In these
pages, Slater introduces us to her struggles with her mother, her
determination to make a home of her own, her compromises in
deciding to marry (her conflicts manifesting as an affair on the
eve of her wedding), her initial struggle to connect with her
newborn child, and the dilemmas of mothering with a mental illness.
She writes openly about her decision to abort her second pregnancy
and her later decision to have a second child after all. She tells
us about the searing decision to have elective double mastectomy
and how her love for her husband was magically rekindled after she
saw him catch fire in a chemical accident.
It's not all mastectomies and chemical fires, though. Slater digs
into the everyday challenges of family living, from buying a lemon
of a car and fighting back menacing weeds to gaining weight and
being jealous of the nanny. Beautifully written, often humorous,
and always revealing, these stories scrutinize the complex
questions surrounding family life, offering up sometimes
uncomfortable truths.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!