Humor and Hard Truths Collide

In Laura Zigman's Separation Anxiety, middle-aged Judy is struggling in limbo. In an attempt to make herself feel better while being unable to deal with a stalled career, painful losses, and separating from her husband, Judy begins wearing the family dog in a baby sling.

Separation Anxiety is both deeply touching and humorous. Zigman walks us (or perhaps carries us in her own literary sling) straight to understanding what could bring someone to take such unconventional measures to make themselves feel better - to feel less alone. It's a shockingly real portrait of how we stumble and how we cope as we move forward when life doesn't work out exactly the way that we planned.

Zigman shines light on the vulnerabilities and even neuroses that most of us keep hidden from the world - and she does so with such tenderness and honesty that you won't be able to stop turning the pages. Separation Anxiety was an absolute joy to read.