Separation Anxiety: A Novel
(Adobe EPUB eBook, Kindle Book, OverDrive Read)
"Separation Anxiety is a hilarious, heart-breaking and thought-provoking portrait of a difficult marriage, as fierce as it is funny.... My advice: Start reading and don't stop until you get to the last page of this wise and wonderful novel." —Alice Hoffman
AN ANTICIPATED BOOK FROM:
Entertainment Weekly * Cosmopolitan * USA Today * Real Simple * Parade * Buzzfeed * Glamour * PopSugar
From bestselling author Laura Zigman, 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.
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Laura Zigman. (2020). Separation Anxiety: A Novel. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)Laura Zigman. 2020. Separation Anxiety: A Novel. HarperCollins.
Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)Laura Zigman, Separation Anxiety: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2020.
MLA Citation (style guide)Laura Zigman. Separation Anxiety: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2020.
| Library | Owned | Available |
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| Shared Digital Collection | 7 | 7 |
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Laura Zigman is the author of Separation Anxiety, Animal Husbandry, Dating Big Bird, Her, and Piece of Work. She has been a contributor to the New York Times and the Washington Post, and was the recipient of a Yaddo residency. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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"Separation Anxiety is a hilarious, heart-breaking and thought-provoking portrait of a difficult marriage, as fierce as it is funny.... My advice: Start reading and don't stop until you get to the last page of this wise and wonderful novel." —Alice Hoffman
AN ANTICIPATED BOOK FROM:
Entertainment Weekly * Cosmopolitan * USA Today * Real Simple * Parade * Buzzfeed * Glamour * PopSugarFrom bestselling author Laura Zigman, 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.
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"The light from Laura Zigman's new novel, "Separation Anxiety," is generated by a kind of literary nuclear fusion: an intense compression of grief and humor.... [Zigman] has a great humorist's eye for the comedy we've seen but overlooked.... Stalked by the loneliness of middle age, you may think the last thing you need is a novel about a woman driven to wearing her dog. You'd be wrong." — Washington Post
"A quirky novel that's as hilarious as it is touching and wise." — People
"[Separation Anxiety] imparts a life-affirming vigor... Judy is a natural comedian and Zigman has gifted her with a fiercely singular voice.... If the book nails life's more challenging moments, it also captures an astonishing level of empathy." — Boston Globe
"You root for Zigman's decent and vulnerable characters even while wanting to give them a good shake.... [Judy] is a familiar, self-deprecating, likable protagonist." — New York Times Book Review
"[A] novel about stress, release, and the unlikely places we turn to for comfort in uncertain times." — Vogue
"A triumph of friendship and storytelling . . . Separation Anxiety confronts the stark plateau of middle age with humor and grace. It's a book that transforms fractured domesticity into a more honest sense of community and selfhood with great wit and enormous heart. The catharsis it offers is both real and satisfying." — New York Observer
"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
"Deeply affecting." — Real Simple
"A hilarious yet thought-provoking exploration of the middle-aged limbo.... With wit and tenderness, Zigman explores life's most important relationships as they develop and change over time."
— Emma Straub on TODAY"That's Laura Zigman's comic genius, that she can take the stuff of mid-life misery and make it not just relatable but downright funny." — Christian Science Monitor
"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
"I love Separation Anxiety.... Laura Zigman is an emotional sharp-shooter—she is able to home in on the most tender, revealing, exquisitely painful aspects of our relationships with others and with ourselves. And somehow she manages to come out the other end with hope, having found what was most meaningful after all. And by the way, I can totally relate to the desire to wear one's dog. If I could, I would." — Chelsea Handler
"Separation Anxiety is a hilarious, heart-breaking and thought-provoking portrait of a difficult marriage, as fierce as it is funny....[Zigman's] sharp eye for contemporary life is a revelation....My advice: Start reading and don't stop until you get to the last page of this wise and wonderful novel." — Alice Hoffman
"What a gem of a novel. Separation Anxiety is wickedly funny, heartrending, poignantly wise, and hopeful. It's laced with moments of self-doubt and marital mayhem, but also the many small daily acts of mercy and heroism that love inspires, though we too often overlook them. The main...
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December 15, 2019
Can wearing the family dog in a baby sling save a troubled marriage? "Wearing the dog is ridiculous. An act of desperation. I know this....But there is the loneliness. How I startle awake in the dark, panicked, full of dread, floating on the night sea on a tiny raft surrounded by all that vast blackness." Once-successful author Judy Vogel is beset by problems. Her writing's dried up, her 13-year-old son is pulling away from her, her best friend is dying of cancer, her marriage is falling apart due to her husband's extreme anxiety issues, and hers don't seem much less serious. As the book opens, Judy and Gary are technically separated but still living in the same house. He addresses his condition with a low-stress job and weed; she finds her solace in a never-used BabyBjörn that turns up in the basement. In goes the family sheltie!--and suddenly, somehow it all doesn't seem so bad. Zigman (Piece of Work, 2006, etc.) is adept at Where'd You Go Bernadette-style snarkery about her son's progressive Montessori school, her own job writing posts for a health and happiness website--"Are dogs the ultimate antidepressant?"; "If just seeing the word cannabis makes you anxious, keep reading"--and a New Age creativity retreat the couple attend. But the central premise of the novel is a bit unsettling. When Judy first puts the dog in the sling, she's aware that it wants to get out. Soon she convinces herself it's nice in there. From that point on she pays so little attention to the actual dog that it could be a stuffed animal. She almost doesn't seem to care about it as a pet or as a sentient being with needs. When she's attacked by a group of people at the dog park who charge her with animal abuse, you wonder whose side you're on. The author gamely combines characters and caricatures, real pain and farce.COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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March 23, 2020
Zigman (Animal Husbandry) charts a chaotic time in the life of an eccentric family in her winning and droll latest. Judy Vogel once wrote a successful kids’ book, but she followed that up with two commercial flops and a case of writer’s block. After running across her 13-year-old son Teddy’s former baby sling while cleaning, Judy decides, on a whim, to start carrying the family dog against her chest. Having a warm body close to her eases the sadness of turning 50, Teddy’s sudden drift away from her, and her recent separation from her husband, Gary. Unfortunately (and humorously), Judy and Gary can’t afford to live apart, and cohabiting helps maintain a charade of normalcy (ostensibly for Teddy). Gary, who works as a self-described “snackologist” selling snacks online, makes the situation barely tenable with his debilitating anxiety, which he eases by smoking marijuana. Financial concerns are somewhat alleviated when they agree to host a troupe of “people puppets”—adult performers who put on shows as puppets—and a young couple also moves into the house, adding to the weirdness. But when someone begins defecating in the halls of Teddy’s school and Teddy becomes a suspect, Judy wonders what effects her instability might be having on him. Snappy wit often offsets the sadness in this zany yet moving story. Zigman’s dryly funny, inventive tale shows how hope can be found in midst of crisis. (Mar.)
Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly referred to this book as the author's first.
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January 1, 2020
Judy wears her dog in a baby sling that she came across when she was cleaning out the basement. Craving closeness and comfort, the dog will have to do, as her son Teddy is now a distant teenager. To add insult to injury, she and her husband Gary are separated, but too broke to afford to go through with the divorce. So Gary is living in the basement, telling Teddy he sleeps there because he snores. Not to mention, Judy's best friend is dying. And her first children's book was a one-hit wonder, so her career has all but tanked. What else could go wrong for Judy? Filled with chapter titles such as The Secret Pooper and The Noble Journey, which describes a meditation retreat Judy and Gary attend but cannot afford, Zigman's (Piece of Work, 2006) is a world where motherhood, wifely duties, and career aspirations take hard twists and turns. With plenty of snark and a dash of humor, she shows just how real the struggle bus is, perfect for readers who like a heroine with a messy life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)
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March 1, 2020
Zigman's latest (Animal Husbandry; Her) features Judy, a 50-year-old mother going through some serious changes. Her career as a successful children's book writer has tanked; now she's writing clickbait for a self-help website. Her parents have recently died, her best friend has terminal cancer, her 13-year-old son is growing up and away from her, and her anxiety-ridden husband has turned to cannabis to an extreme, all of which is debilitating to the marriage. Judy has a twofold approach to her problems; she tucks her Sheltie dog into an old baby carrier and wears the dog everywhere, all while wallowing in self-pity. Anxiety is a serious issue, but here it is treated as comedic fodder, while the dog in the sling will have readers pondering whether it is animal abuse or if they should just accept it as farce. VERDICT Readers who enjoyed Maria Semple's far superior Where'd You Go, Bernadette or Linda Holmes's Evvie Drake Starts Over may enjoy this, but it is not Zigman's best effort. She is a popular writer, though, so buy for demand only. [See Prepub Alert, 9/16/19.]--Stacy Alesi, Eugene M. & Christine E. Lynn Lib., Lynn Univ., Boca Raton, FL
Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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October 1, 2019
Talk about middle-age slump. Judy has seen her career as a children's book author crash-land, son Teddy mostly disdains her, husband Gary is wreathed in pot smoke, and she's stuck writing (somewhat inappropriately) for a self-help website. No wonder she carries the dog around for comfort in an old baby sling. From the author of Animal Husbandry; a 200,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
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"Separation Anxiety is a hilarious, heart-breaking and thought-provoking portrait of a difficult marriage, as fierce as it is funny.... My advice: Start reading and don't stop until you get to the last page of this wise and wonderful novel." —Alice Hoffman
AN ANTICIPATED BOOK FROM:
Entertainment Weekly * Cosmopolitan * USA Today * Real Simple * Parade * Buzzfeed * Glamour * PopSugarFrom bestselling author Laura Zigman, 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
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