Playing House: Notes of a Reluctant Mother
Language: English
Published by Beacon Press, 2013
- Hardcover
- New

Seller: BennettBooksLtd, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.BennettBooksLtd
AbeBooks seller since April 17, 2008
Condition: New
£ 58.45
Quantity: 1 available
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Seller Inventory # Q-0807001732
- Title
- Playing House: Notes of a Reluctant Mother
- Author
- Slater, Lauren
- Publisher
- Beacon Press
- Publication year
- 2013
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0807001732
- ISBN 13
- 9780807001738
- Item weight
- 16 ounces
- Dimensions
- 6x0x9
Lauren Slater’s rocky childhood left her cold to the idea of ever creating a family of her own, but a husband, two dogs, two children, and three houses later, she came around to the challenges, trials, and unexpected rewards of playing house. In these autobiographical pieces, Slater presents snapshots of domestic life, populating them with the gritty details and jarring realities of sharing home, life, and body in the curious institution called “family.” She asks difficult questions and probes unsettling truths about sex, love, and parenting. In these pages, Slater introduces us to her struggles with her mother, her determination to make a home of her own, her compromises in deciding to marry (her conflicts manifesting as an affair on the eve of her wedding), her initial struggle to connect with her newborn child, and the dilemmas of mothering with a mental illness. She writes openly about her decision to abort her second pregnancy and her later decision to have a second child after all. She tells us about the searing decision to have elective double mastectomy and how her love for her husband was magically rekindled after she saw him catch fire in a chemical accident.
It’s not all mastectomies and chemical fires, though. Slater digs into the everyday challenges of family living, from buying a lemon of a car and fighting back menacing weeds to gaining weight and being jealous of the nanny. Beautifully written, often humorous, and always revealing, these stories scrutinize the complex questions surrounding family life, offering up sometimes uncomfortable truths.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Lauren Slater is a psychologist and writer. She is the author of several books, including Blue Dreams: The Science and the Story of the Drugs That Changed Our Lives, The $60,000 Dog: My Life with Animals, Playing House: Notes of a Reluctant Mother, Welcome to My Country, and Opening Skinner’s Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century. Slater lives in Harvard, Massachusetts.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
BennettBooksLtd
Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since April 17, 2008
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