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If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother by Julia Sweeney – 243 pages
Book Blurb:
If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother is her compilation of stories, revealing her painfully funny adventures and her poignant personal story of deciding to adopt as a single woman, her transition to traditional family after she married and took on the new role of at-home mother, and her insightful open-eyed wonder at the whole concept of motherhood for herself and others, too. From being mistaken as her daughter’s grandmother to her theory that people who can’t make friends often resort to making children, Julia imparts a cutting edge, contemporary take on parenting, displaying a definite appreciation for the absurd. Poignant, provocative, and wise, Julia writes about parenting as only she can, laying out her mother-daughter experiences with religion, nannies, pets, schools, and much more.
My Review: 3 stars
This book is a quick, humorous read. We watch Julia discover herself as she turns from a single woman to a single parent to a married woman in the heart of suburbia. It’s told in an honest voice while her kid and husband are both away for an extended time; so of course she begins with the beauty of “alone time” to ending with the ache of missing them. I’m discussing this book at a school sponsored Mom’s Day Out, so it’ll be interested to see the over all take on this book. Julia is strong in her political beliefs, so I’m sure that’ll make for some lively discussion!
Quotes I liked:
I began to wonder if I was getting dehydrated from crying so much. I wondered if one should cry into a cup and then drink the tears back up again?”
– “I remade my world by assembling this family, and now this family has remade me.”
