CATASTROPHIC HAPPINESS Finding Joy in Childhood's Messy Years

Who do we become when all our waking moments are taken up with raising children? Journalist and mother Catherine Newman reads her charming answer with the same pleasing authenticity that her humble writing conveys. She's an easy-to-hear and refreshingly astute observer of the parenting years. With witty insights conveyed through conversations with her son and daughter, she chronicles her efforts to maintain some type of order in her life as she follows the bouncing ball of childhood illnesses and mishaps, malignant cultural influences, and the constant risk of losing her identity in the midst of dizzying parental challenges. Her relatable narration is a good vehicle for her observations that blurring of the self is normal during the child-raising years and that embracing the chaos makes more sense than struggling for reason and order. T.W. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2016]