monalyisha 's review for:

Wayward by Dana Spiotta

4.5

---

A story about a stumbling, middle-aged white woman, after the 2016 election, who is doing her best to be self-aware & socially-conscious. She is sometimes insufferable in spite of this, sometimes insufferable because of this, sometimes delightful, and often relatable (whether this causes the reader to feel gleeful or shameful vacillates). She is struggling to be a good mother, a good daughter, and to belong to herself. She separates from her husband and buys an historical but run-down home in the “rough part” of Syracuse, NY. She wants “a room of one’s own” inside of herself and outside, while also dealing with her own mortality and that of those she loves. Spiotta writes poignantly and sardonically, earning her blurb from George Saunders. This is my first time reading her but it won’t be my last.