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jenkepesh 's review for:
Maggie: Or, A Man and a Woman walk into a Bar
by Katie Yee
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
This is a short, slightly quirky book told in first person about a woman whose life is upended in a double whammy, and who just has to find a way to keep moving through. Within pages, our protagonist’s seemingly perfect husband tells her he has been having an affair, and lets her figure out that his telling means he is ending their marriage and moving on with the affair partner. But this couple has kids, so she can’t fall to pieces, even when another disaster unfolds. To be a mother is to find some way to compartmentalism, and to help your kids survive. So, she makes lunches, negotiates summer visits with the grandparents who never accepted her, and keeps it together with the help of her fierce warrior of a best friend. And after around a year, she’s muddled through, and life goes on,
The topics are deeply emotional, the stuff of nightmares for anyone with small kids. But her approach is simple: just keep swimming. Re-tell your own narrative to yourself. Re-tell the Chinese fairy tales, weirdnesses and all. Choose to parent for the long haul, temptation to pander be damned. And the narrative style makes it inevitable that the reader feels, at the end of the book, that Part One has concluded, and Part 2 will begin any time.
The topics are deeply emotional, the stuff of nightmares for anyone with small kids. But her approach is simple: just keep swimming. Re-tell your own narrative to yourself. Re-tell the Chinese fairy tales, weirdnesses and all. Choose to parent for the long haul, temptation to pander be damned. And the narrative style makes it inevitable that the reader feels, at the end of the book, that Part One has concluded, and Part 2 will begin any time.