Laura Zigman’s comedic novel of anxiety and parenting is awkward but entertaining. The awkwardness seems intended because it is so persistent. Judy is unhappy because her marriage with Gary is not working and they have separated even though they are still living together. Her son Teddy is a typical uncommunicative 13 year old and she misses the connection she had with him. Judy had a publishing success with her illustrated children’s book There’s a Bird on my Head but since then her sales have been slow. She now makes her money from writing quirky posts for a website on wellness called “Well-er.” But she and Gary, who works on advising a company on snacking, can’t afford the fees for Teddy’s private school. Gary has debilitating anxiety and self-medicates with medical marijuana. Judy has a different method of self-comfort: she has taken to wearing the family dog in a baby sling. This is what is depicted on the book cover. When she goes to Teddy’s school to tell the kids about her work, she wears a Peruvian hat with a bird on it. Her son practically dies of embarrassment. As a way of reducing the school fees, Judy and Gary agree to host human puppets in their home who have a residency at the school. The story has many weird scenes of failure and even shame. Both she and Gary have plenty of potential but engage in a lot of self-defeating behavior. It is almost what draws the two of them together. The question is whether they can work out their problems and sort out their lives. Can they overcome their anxiety? Can they find more productive ways to self-sooth than using a dog-sling and getting high? They certainly try with a number of different attempts, and that’s what fills out the bulk of the novel. Readers may find it tiresome, but it is at least distinctive and a light-hearted reflection on modern self-help culture. But it isn’t just satire since the story has serious reflection on life’s troubles. Courtney Patterson narrates the unabridged audiobook with lots of energy and giving different characters distinctive voices.

Christian Perring is editor of Metapsychology Online Reviews. He teaches philosophy in the NYC area and is an APPA certified philosophical counselor.

Categories: Fiction, AudioBooks

Keywords: Fiction