Blurb:
She's smart,
pretty, and runs her own business. So then why does she feel so dead inside?
Between work, two kids, and a husband who finds her about as exciting as
furniture shopping, this is the story of a (formerly-exciting but now
way-too-typical) suburban mom who diagnoses herself with Momnesia and
sets about finessing a new version of her old vivaciousness:
Momnesia (mahm-nee-zhuh) -noun-
Loss of the memory of who you used to be. Caused by pregnancy, play dates, and trying to keep the house cleaner than the Joneses.
Loss of the memory of who you used to be. Caused by pregnancy, play dates, and trying to keep the house cleaner than the Joneses.
She finds
some adventure pursing her own interests, makes some new friends (including the
battery operated variety), but still feels like nothing more than a caretaker.
In between
dealing with her husband's manic-depresssive behavior, drama with her friends,
and some naughty Internet escapades, she ponders, Is it that I haven't been
myself? Or is it that I am being myself, but just different from how I used to
be?
It isn't
until she tosses the Invisible Rule Book altogether that she discovers life—and
love—have more to offer than she ever imagined!
Review:
Momnesia is a thoroughly
enjoyable book. I'm not sure how much of
that I suffered from having been the wife of a submarine sailor who was
stationed aboard fast attack nuclear submarines. I was still in the Navy when we got married
and it took six months for us to get stationed together. The year after I got out of the Navy, he was
gone for nine months, etc. So I was
pretty independent. Although there was
one evening I was out listening to a friend who was a folk singer at a bar on
Waikiki. I was chatting with an Air
Force officer at the next table. Between
sets Russ came over to my table and started to introduce me to the
gentleman. After a minute's hesitation,
Russ shrugged and said, “This is Tim's wife.”
Not that the guy had ever met Tim.
Russ just couldn't remember my name.
Momnesia starts in a
supermarket parking lot. Our Heroine is
sitting in her car and suddenly, she can't remember whether she's done her
shopping or not. The car is stifling,
but she lives in North Carolina so that's nothing new. She's sweating, but she also has the
chills. Has she done her shopping
or hasn't she? For the past year she's
been debating whether or not to get a divorce, along with help from a few very
close friends, a marriage counselor, and the “Two Little Guys
Inside Her Head.” Now she literally
doesn't know if she's coming or going.
She finally forces herself to look into the back of the car to see
whether or not there are groceries there…
The rest of the first part of the book chronicles the
year leading up Our Heroine's “Grocery Store Incident” and her subsequent drive
home to ask her husband for a divorce.
Oh, it wasn't just that year that led up to the divorce. That was how long she'd actively been
debating the issue. She'd been unhappy
long before then. Part Two of the book
chronicles her separation, six months of which she spends first trying to
chivvy her husband out of the bedroom, and then out of the house. He doesn't argue; he isn't exactly abusive;
he just doesn't get it. He's really
rather pathetic. And he's bi-polar. Not my kind of fly into a rage and then sleep it off and feel worthless bi-polar; the sleep for weeks and then start a huge project (like hacking a hole in the house for a bay window) and go back to the TV kind. Most of the time when
she confronts him about anything or even asks a yes/no/I don’t know question,
he just looks at her, unblinking. She
calls it his cat face. (I had a
boyfriend with that face. Drove me
nuts.) Many scenes end with: “Cat face.
Ugh!”
Our Heroine tells us about her stretch marks, and laments
about her “Chicken Belly Flap Thing” left over from giving birth to her
daughters, Grace and Rose that she just can't get rid of no matter how many
push-ups she does. She talks about
strapping herself into her (and I'm paraphrasing because I can' recall the
exact quote here) "Push 'em up and show 'em off" bra when she starts
dating after the separation. There’s
even a surprise ending when we share the end of Our Heroine’s submersion of
Self and ultimate Blooming Moment.
Definitely no cat face on that page!
Yay!
Momnesia is a perfect
book for clubs. It even has a list of
discussion questions at the back. But
whether you’re in a club or not; you’ll enjoy this book. The final paragraph of the blurb was a bit of
hype and I usually don’t like hype in blurbs, but in this case, I’m adding it
here. Because I agree completely.
“With custom-painted cover art that perfectly epitomizes
the struggle of finding balance between "momminess" and "sexiness,"
Momnesia is a must read for anyone who has ever been a mother, had a
mother, wanted to be a mother, judged a mother, or even just wondered about
mothers. A great gift book, too!”
Just
buy it—for you and all the moms and non-moms in your life.
Length: 288 Pages
Prices:
Paperback:
$11.99
E-Book:
On Sale Until 08-19-13 $1.99
Thanks
for visiting. RIW
