First published 2009
Melanie Gideon faces a year of reckoning. Her nine year old son leaves for camp and she faints. Someone in her household runs away. She battles over mattresses with her husband and waits in carpool lines. The domestic routines that once felt solid now feel slippery. Gideon finds herself asking the questions people think but rarely voice. How often do married couples have sex? What medications keep everyone functioning? Is anyone truly happy? She watches her youth recede while midlife realities press in. Her household needs a catastrophe plan. Her fantasies clash with her actual life as a wife and mother. Through ordinary moments and small crises, Gideon searches for ways to restore passion and mystery to her days. She wants to know if happiness can be rekindled, if beauty still exists in the everyday, and whether "happily ever after" remains possible when everything familiar begins to change.
Genres: literary-fiction, domestic-fiction, family-life, contemporary
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: domestic, family-dynamics, slice-of-life
224 pages · Hardcover · Knopf