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Ayelet Waldman
(Doubleday; $23.95)
There is clearly something amiss in Emilia's life. You get this idea from the opening pages as Emilia heads out on a walk through Central Park carefully timed so that she misses as many mother and children, baby carriages and full playgrounds as possible because it's clear she has a child aversion ... so why does she end up at the Nursery School at the 92nd Street Y picking up William? Is she a mother? A nanny? Or ... a step-mother. And, is she a wicked step-mother for an obvious reason? Does everyone avoid her because she is mean? because she is the second wife? because there is something else wrong? or maybe they don't?
Ayelet Waldman is honest, funny and downright brutal about Emilia's life and the world that it mirrors. Emilia is married to her soulmate who has an intrusive and controlling ex; has had a typically dysfunctional upbringing; has a genious 5-year old stepson who is hard not to melt over and has recently suffered the death of her first and only child, Isabel. Isabel's death has totally undone Emilia and turned her world into a life of carnival mirrors. Nothing is as it should be and is that because of Emilia's state-of-mind or because it really isn't as it should be?
Waldman has written a true-to-life story that is impossible not to get sucked into from the first page.
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