Separation Anxiety (Zigman)

Separation Anxiety 
Laura Zigman, 2020
HarperCollins
288 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062909077


Summary
A hilarious novel about a wife and mother whose life is unraveling and the well-intentioned but increasingly disastrous steps she takes to course-correct her relationships, her career, and her belief in herself…

Judy never intended to start wearing the dog.

But when she stumbled across her son Teddy’s old baby sling during a halfhearted basement cleaning, something in her snapped. So: the dog went into the sling, Judy felt connected to another living being, and she’s repeated the process every day since.

Life hasn’t gone according to Judy’s plan.

Her career as a children’s book author offered a glimpse of success before taking an embarrassing nose dive. Teddy, now a teenager, treats her with some combination of mortification and indifference. Her best friend is dying. And her husband, Gary, has become a pot-addled professional "snackologist" who she can’t afford to divorce.

On top of it all, she has a painfully ironic job writing articles for a self-help website—a poor fit for someone seemingly incapable of helping herself.

Wickedly funny and surprisingly tender, Separation Anxiety offers a frank portrait of middle-aged limbo, examining the ebb and flow of life’s most important relationships.

Tapping into the insecurities and anxieties that most of us keep under wraps, and with a voice that is at once gleefully irreverent and genuinely touching, Laura Zigman has crafted a new classic for anyone taking fumbling steps toward happiness. (From the publisher.)

Author Bi.o
• Birth—ca. 1962
• Raised—Newton, Massachusetts, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Massachusetts-Amherst
• Currently—lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Laura Zigman is the author of several novels, including her well-known debut, Animal Husbandry (1998), which was made into the movie, Someone Like You (2001, with Hugh Jackman and Ashley Judd). Zigman's other books include Dating Big Bird (2000), Her (2003), A Piece of Work (2006), and Separation Anxiety (2020). She is also co-author, with professional matchmaker Patti Novak, of the self-help book, Get Over Yourself: How to Get Real, Get Serious, and Get Ready to Find True Love (2008).

Zigman grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and graduated from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She worked for ten years as a publicist for Times Books, Vintage Books, Turtle Bay Books, Atlantic Monthly Press, and Alfred A. Knopf, before moving to Washington, D.C., where she began her career as a writer.

Zigman has been a contributor to The New York Times, Washington Post, and Huffington Post, produced a popular online series of animated videos, "Annoying Conversations," and was the recipient of a Yaddo residency. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, son, and deeply human Sheltie. (Adapted from the publisher and from Wikidedia. Retrieved 3/4/2020.)

Book Reviews
What is the name of the emotion that mixes exasperation with sympathy? This was the question going through my head as I read Separation Anxiety, Laura Zigman’s wistful and somewhat erratic fifth novel. The story of Judy Vogel, a middle-aged writer, mother and wife consumed with loneliness as her husband and son drift away, it is a tale that elicits a curious combination of those feelings.… It is unclear why otherwise passive people have decided to get divorced since they seem to like each other and are kind. This dynamic, at least, is fresh; you root for Zigman’s decent and vulnerable characters even while wanting to give them a good shake.… Zigman has brought her ur-self firmly into middle age—and while she is a familiar, self-deprecating, likable protagonist with self-esteem issues, one does find oneself wondering why, with the supposed vantage point of some years, she hasn’t yet gotten out from under the weight of her own judgment.
Janice Y.K. Lee - New York Times Book Review


Judy [is] a 50-year-old mother going through some serious changes.… Readers who enjoyed Maria Semple's far superior Where'd You Go, Bernadette… may enjoy this, but it is not Zigman's best effort. She is a popular writer, though, so buy for demand only. —Stacy Alesi, Eugene M. & Christine E. Lynn Lib., Lynn Univ., Boca Raton, FL
Library Journal


A world where motherhood, wifely duties, and career aspirations take hard twists and turns. With plenty of snark and a dash of humor, [Zigman] shows just how real the struggle bus is, perfect for readers who like a heroine with a messy life.
Booklist


[A] bit unsettling.… [Judy] almost doesn't seem to care about [the dog]… [and when] a group of people at the dog park… charge her with animal abuse, you wonder whose side you're on. The author gamely combines characters and caricatures, real pain and farce.
Kirkus Reviews


Every middle-aged woman who has ever felt invisible, lost or depressed will connect with some aspect of Judy’s life…. Unpredictable and delightfully original. For those seeking a good laugh and a good cry, look no further than Separation Anxiety.
BookPage

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