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Chargement... The Slippery Yearpar Melanie Gideon
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Very annoying main character that is way too self involved ( ) Finally, a book about self-reflection that really speaks to me and makes me laugh. Though not quite going through a mid-life crisis, Melanie Gideon does feel a mid-life slump and starts to assess her life. Older books about a 40-something in a mid-life crisis depict gray-haired women who feel empty after their kids go to college. What?! We're 40, we're still young and some of us still have young kids. Those older books often had the character questioning life because of a broken marriage. Gideon gets that everyday living can be just fine, but still lead one to ask, "Is it enough? Is this where I'm supposed to be?" Those old books about mid-life don't reflect today's reality. This one does. In some spots it made me laugh out loud in the staff lunchroom! But it also has a quiet truth to it, elements that made me feel I'm not alone. It may not be for everyone, but it's the book I've been seeking for a while. There are times when one reads a memoir written by someone who is entirely other, and one is able to inhabit that person, understand their motivations, and walk away with a certain understanding. This was not one of those times for me. I didn't get Gideon, I was impatient with her foibles, I was annoyed with her attitudes, and I ended up being glad that my only encounter with her was through the pages of this book. I'm not saying I think she's a bad person, or even a bad writer. I think she's a good writer- she was able to give me a crystal-clear picture of her inexplicably discontented life- the failure to understand or to be sympathetic was entirely mine. The book jacket reads that the author is "in a quest to reignite passion and mystery in her life", but I found no quest here. This book is more like a collection of thoughts, disjointed and random. But it is about motherhood and couplehood and trying to find purpose in the dull routine of everyday life. I almost gave up reading this halfway through, but I'm glad I persevered because once I dropped my expectations and stopped looking for "the quest", the book became funny and entertaining. The second half was enjoyable. A light and fun read, though I would've liked to get to know her husband and son better. Their parts in the book were very vague to me.
Gideon derides her unwillingness to take risks, but what her book demonstrates is a brave gameness, not just for self-deprecation, but also for self-exposure. “I look for community, yet I shy away from intimacy,” Gideon writes in one of the unguarded, sincere statements she slips in among her quips and jabs. “And then I wonder why, despite all the fine people in my life, I am so lonely. The kind of lonely I have no right to feel.” The surprise is when we realize that we have been reading one of the happiest books to cross our paths in a very long time. It is a kind book, a loving book, a funny book, often a wise book. Its author is lucky; she is fortunate, blessed and has the saving grace to know it. This self-deprecating, wickedly funny and mildly philosophical reflection on marriage, mothering, middle age and the march toward life’s meaning will ring true for midlife women—whether they are mothers or not—as well as for men of a certain age. Gideon explores her pain, doubt, regret, and confusion as a wife and mother at midlife with great poise and insight and, ultimately, a gentle aura of hope. Distinctions
A celebration of the indignities and consolations of modern domestic life describes the author's haphazard experiences after coming into a realization of her own mortality upon reaching her mid-forties, an awakening that prompted her efforts to find meaning in everyday activities. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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