Elizabeth F.A. Meaney

Happy at Work, Happy at Home: The Girl’s Guide to Being a Working Mom

admin — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

Happy at Work, Happy at Home is a starter lifestyle guide for the professional who is new to motherhood. It’s a great book to begin the parenting-career balance, although many moms may seek more specific guides about topics contained within, such as how to work effectively from a home office, or how to choose a day care center or nursery school. The book has a broad base, touching on topics ranging from fertility treatments, to legal procedure regarding maternity leave and career-pregnancy conflict or how to manage a support system of babysitters and nannies. The ultimate goal of the collected advice, as indicated by the title, is to allow the woman to achieve professional success while not only running a home smoothly, but also enjoying time with her children and husband and having time for herself.

The book is made up of three types of sections, intertwined: numbered and bulleted lists of concrete advice, interviews with experts on various subjects, and a reassuring and supportive narrative written by the co-authors, themselves entrepreneurs and working mothers. Of these, the first type of section, the tip lists, are probably the most relevant for the time-pressed audience of the book. Lists include: Pregnancy Do’s and Don’ts for the office (fyi: don’t shop online for strollers while you’re on the job, do take on extra projects that can be completed during office hours), Do’s and Don’ts of taking your child to work, and tip sheets on how to build rapport with your boss, how to determine if your company is baby-friendly, how to make a stay-at-home-dad situation work. If you’re forced to breeze through this book due to a busy schedule, my advice would be to focus on these lists.

The authors interview various experts and role models who offer their take on maximizing your time with your family, advancing your career while working more efficiently, and ensuring your comfort with your childcare system. The director of a Manhattan pre-school advises what to look for in a classroom, how to drop off your child off without a scene, and how to stay involved in the classroom even when your time is limited. A stay-at-home dad offers his take on trading professional advancement for more time raising his kids. A high-ranking corporate officer at Yahoo! reveals how she and her husband collaborate with weekly meetings to schedule time for their daughters and time for each other.

The backbone of the book is a supportive broaching of each topic by the co-authors, who display intelligence and empathy in their address to all women, whether they choose to continue their careers at full-speed, reduce their hours, or stay at home to raise children. The authors reassure working moms that their children will be safe and cared for, and that while the people they hire to care for their homes and children may not do everything exactly as mom would, everything will get done. The authors explore the common problem of moms feeling guilty for leaving their children, and the less common problem of moms using the office as a place to escape. This encouraging and uplifting narrative brings out the many positives of working motherhood, especially the ability to raise children who believe a woman can be a breadwinner and a man can be a caretaker, and children who are proud of their parents’ professional achievements.

Written by: Elizabeth F.A. Meaney, December 30th 2009

The Girls

admin — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 16:32:00 +0000

By Tucker Shaw

Amulet

The Girls is a modern chick lit version of The Women by Clare Boothe Luce. This book, like that classic play, is made especially interesting because boys are talked about, but not featured as active characters! In this modern version, girl-next-door Peggy enrolls at an upper-crust Aspen prep school and finds herself way out of her league. She is intimidated by the seeming perfection of her roommate Mary, who is beautiful, popular, and the girlfriend of a wealthy hotelier's son. She is intimidated by Sylvia, the constantly color-coordinated, gossip-saavy diva of the school. And she is intimidated by the town of Aspen, which is filled with overpriced lattes and celebrity sightings.

Peggy finds herself in a moral dilemma when she overhears Amber, the local coffee shop’s barista, claiming that Mary’s boyfriend Stephen is cheating on her with a local salesgirl. Should Peggy tell Mary and hurt her feelings and possibly her relationship over what could be gossip? Or should she stay silent and possibly betray her friend? The choice is made no easier by the fact that Sylvia has also overheard, and could potentially relay the news to Mary before Peggy does, possibly usurping the roommate’s friendship.

As Peggy wrestles with the decision, she goes to the shop to see the salesgirl in question and overhears some incriminating evidence. When Mary must confront the crisis, unfortunately Sylvia has joined Peggy as her support system. However, we see a more vulnerable Sylvia as she begins to share in the girls’ weekly grilled cheese confidences. And soon the girls team up to confront cheating boyfriends. As The Girls ends, various characters pop up, seemingly out of nowhere, and join the drama, hurling accusations at one another’s boyfriends. The plot dissolves into a series of catfights, which are fun but shallow. Luckily, the book is made interesting by its setting, Colorado (refreshing to see snobbery outside of NY/LA!) and by the prominent role which food plays in the narrative. It is supremely refreshing to see a young female narrator (Peggy) who sees food as neither an enemy nor a savior, but rather a creative medium. Throughout the book, Peggy deals with stress by zoning out and creating elaborate and fanciful recipes in her mind. A responsible young woman who provides a centered view of the dramatized girly events around her, the narrator is skillful and inventive at her job as a chef’s assistant in a hip Aspen restaurant. She clearly has talent, passion, and creativity. As a plus, Tucker Shaw, himself a food journalist, includes some of the yummy recipes at the back of the book!

Written by: Elizabeth F.A. Meaney, July 25th 2009

A Reliable Wife

admin — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:21:00 +0000

By Robert Goolrick

Algonquin Books

A Reliable Wife begins with anticipation. First, there’s the anticipation of Ralph Truitt, the businessman who owns all the large assets of the town, Truitt, which is named for his family. Ralph Truitt waits on the train platform for a train which is late arriving. As he waits, he is watched by the people of the town, blue-collar workers whose labor makes him wealthy, and who live cold and difficult lives as poor people in the isolated town that revolves around Ralph’s large house.

The train that is waited and watched for carries Ralph Truitt’s new wife—a plain and simple woman who sent a picture and a letter in response to Ralph Truitt’s plain and simple ad asking for a “reliable wife.” From the moment the woman steps off the train, the arrangement is far more complex than expected. Neither the picture nor the letter revealed who the woman truly is, or her reason for marrying Ralph Truitt.

The suspense of Ralph and the town waiting to see the wife who has answered the ad escalates into excitement when the carriage overturns on the way home from the station. Despite the isolation of the novel’s setting, deep in the woods of snowy Wisconsin, A Reliable Wife is a simmering page-turner. Goolrick’s sense of pacing is strong, with well-spaced revelations that deepen the characters and create even more questions about the story’s outcome. Catherine travels to St. Louis to retrieve Truitt’s son—the only living member of his family; he has lost his wife and daughter long ago. However, during this trip to St. Louis, in which the glittering city life contrasts with Truitt’s lonely and isolated Wisconsin home, we learn not only the glamorous and shockingly immoral lifestyle that Catherine Land managed to conceal, but also her connection to Truitt and her ultimate plan for their marriage.

A Reliable Wife is suspenseful and passionate, a great read, especially for fans of Victorian novels. Truitt has secrets about his dead wife and daughter and his faraway son, whose legitimacy is in question. Catherine uses her “honest and simple woman” front to divert attention from the deadly motives she has for Ralph Truitt and his money. However, despite the menacing pasts and motives of each of the character, they manage to develop not only a sensual but an emotional connection, somehow attracted rather than repulsed by one another’s sins. The twist at the end changes the plan that motivated Catherine to marry in the first place, reflects the power of the bond that forms between Catherine Land and Ralph Truitt.

Written by: Elizabeth F.A. Meaney, July 24th 2009

The Music Teacher

admin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 23:21:00 +0000

By Barbara Hall

Algonquin Books

The Music Teacher is a story of failure. It is the story of what could have been, but wasn’t—because of neglect, because of abuse, or for the simple reason that not everyone succeeds. Most people fail.

Protagonist Pearl Swain is one of these failures. Swain was a gifted violinist, but her father hated (and feared) her passion for music so strongly that he burned her violin in a backyard fire. Now Swain is a violin teacher rather than a professional musician, an occupation which she views as a failure. Her marriage is also a failure, having recently ended with her professor husband impregnating another woman and leaving her.

Now, Swain’s life revolves completely around the music store where she gives her lessons, and the staff there, with whom she socializes and debates favorite music and artists a la High Fidelity. Her romantic prospects are limited to the men at the shop. Her life as a music teacher changes when an orphan named Hallie comes in for lessons. Swain identifies with Hallie, who is gifted but lacks the support system necessary for success. While Swain is enamored of the girl’s talent, she discovers that Hallie’s personal problems are far more dangerous than she suspected. But is it already too late? Is Swain already involved enough in Hallie’s life to be harmed?

Hallie acts as the catalyst for many of Pearl’s realizations, about the process through which talent becomes achievement, about parents and family, about her own childhood, and her marriage. Although bitter, Swain is ultimately likeable. The book stands out because of its exploration of failure and its unique juxtapositional setting. (Swain lives in a trailer park in Los Angeles, the city of stardom.)

Unfortunately, neither the writing nor the story is remarkable enough to stay in a reader’s head for long, unless he or she is particularly interested in the career of a professional musician.

Written by: Elizabeth F.A. Meaney, July 21st 2009

Between Here and April

admin — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:10:00 +0000

By Deborah Copaken Kogan

Algonquin Books

Deborah Copaken Kogan’s novel Between Here and April begins with Elizabeth Burns, a modern New York journalist and mother of two young girls, recalling her first-grade friend April Cassidy’s sudden disappearance. As a child, Elizabeth accepted her teacher’s vague explanation that April would not return to school, but as an adult she is shocked by the brief newspaper articles summarizing the gruesome crime committed by April’s mother, Adele.

Unfulfilled with the “fluff” journalism that allows her flexible hours to raise her daughters, Elizabeth seizes on the challenge of investigating this story further. Kogan’s novel is at its best when Elizabeth speaks to Adele’s neighbors and even gains access to notes from her counseling sessions. Each revelation of the spiraling loneliness of Adele’s life as a wife and mother (made especially sympathetic by her doctor’s ignorance of post-partum depression) seems to illuminate the difficulty of Elizabeth’s own life. Her struggles with her career, marriage and sex life, rising childcare costs, and the pressures of motherhood illustrate the progress and enduring questions of mothers from different generations.

As the case stagnates, the author attempts to weave in increasingly complex threads from Elizabeth’s past. Her reunion with a past lover and a flashback to a turning point in Elizabeth’s journalism career in the Middle East seem to stray from the core themes of motherhood and self-identity in the novel where Kogan is most effective at blending the past and present. Elizabeth’s concerns about these more disparate aspects of her life seem less relatable, perhaps because they are so late introduced.

Overall, this was an interesting and thought-provoking read, shedding light on an aspect of motherhood, post-partum depression that is not always addressed openly. The construction of the plot at times lacks direction, but it is clear that Kogan has many interesting issues to write about, and we should look forward to more work from her in the future.

Written by: Elizabeth F.A. Meaney, March 21st 2009