Hell Is Other Parents: And Other Tales of Maternal Combustion

by Deborah Copaken Kogan

Book Overview

I read No Exit in my early twenties, and I remember thinking hell might very well be other people, okay, sure, but under what far-fetched conditions would anyone ever actually be trapped forever in the company of strangers with no sleep or means of escape?Then I became a parent. From Deborah Copaken Kogan, the acclaimed author of the national bestseller Shutterbabe, comes this edgy, insightful, and sidesplitting...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1401340814
• ISBN13: 9781401340810
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Hachette Books
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

finally, no longer "one of a kind"

Although never a war-photo-journalist, I can certainly relate to "Hell is other Parents" as a hard-working professional mother. What a pleasure to read anecdotes eerily similar to some of the nightmares I have endured while sharing a laugh (or sigh) in the process. A must-read for any tightly wound, high strung, fiercely intelligent woman (with a biological clock) and a soft-spot for little ones... please write more!

Recent praise for Hell is Other Parents, posted by the author

An important note from the author: Just as "Me Talk Pretty One Day" (an excellent book) is not solely about David Sedaris' struggle to learn French, "Hell is other Parents" is the name of one essay in this collection of essays, which I'm hoping, if you like writers like Sedaris--and who doesn't?--you will find entertaining. So if you're looking for a whole book about the crazy things parents say to one another, sadly, you'll have to find another book. Or just go to your local playground for the 3-D live action version. But! If you're looking for a book about tiny moments in the life of a middle-aged, middle-class, working mother of three, trying and failing to keep it together, well then, reader, you've come to the right place. Welcome. But don't listen to me. I'm biased. I wrote the thing, so I'm obligated to give myself 5 stars. Therefore, I've taken the liberty of posting here the following pull-quotes, all cut and pasted from independent reviews which have appeared in the press during the past month: "Kogan's essays are witty and smart...readers will find plenty to ponder and laugh about as they follow this self-described 'laissez-faire' parent..." -Publisher's Weekly "The former war photojournalist delivers funny, surprisingly riveting 'tales of maternal combustion' in this book of collected essays." -Entertainment Weekly "Kogan has a way of keeping things in (global) perspective...[she] is at her best when chronicling small minds making stupid, compassion-free decisions...She's also excellent at chronicling what life is like when you don't have quite enough money to make Manhattan life easy." -New York Post "One of the best pieces, about Kogan's experience having appendicitis in a New York emergency room, is a stellar argument for the urgency of health-care reform." -Washington Post "Hell Is Other Parents deserves a place on any breeder's bookshelf, because the pieces about raising not just children but a family - creating a communal unit despite vagaries of income, the stresses of city life, and yes - the disdain of other parents - are unlike any you'll read anywhere else. Kogan writes with the surefooted aim she uses behind the camera: Point, click, truth." -The Book Studio "Writer and journalist Kogan hilariously calls all smug parents to task in this collection of essays. What the brash title doesn't hint at, though, is the thoughtfulness with which she writes about her parenting experiences, ranging from sharing a maternity room with a teenage mom to going to Pakistan with her young son." -Cookie magazine "The author confronts family challenges that make covering carnage in Afghanistan (which she has done) seem easy by comparison. Her frank take on Mommy & Me classes, life as a reluctant stage mother and encounters with parents who espouse decidedly different childrearing philosophies (i.e. helicopter parents) is delightful. So too are her flashbacks to younger and wilder days: days before she and her family of five

Funny and honest

Deborah Copaken Kogan is a wonderful writer whose stories of love, marriage and raising children in NYC are funny and insightful. She is brave and honest, and her stories will resonate with anyone who has tried to balance a career and a family. I highly recommend this book - it is entertaining but also makes you think about some of the tough stuff. My only complaint is that it was too short - I was sad to come to the end of the book so quickly!!

Funny and Personal: female David Sedaris

I loved reading this book, and found Kogan's honesty and wit a delight. So I dont know what Noel is talking about. Not all the stories were about parenting, but the subtitle of the book makes it pretty clear "and other tales of maternal combustion." She doesn't hold back or hide the messy stuff and I was laughing out loud a lot. My favorites were the story of her sharing a post-partum hospital room with a teenage single mother with a fondness for hip-hop, and then one of her trip back to Paris, revisiting old boyfriends with her budding teenage daughter. They are great personal anecdotes: think a sharp female version of David Sedaris, with too little income, and never enough time to do it all. A great read.

Funny -- and realistic

I laughed a lot throughout this energetic, unvarnished view at one mother's hectic efforts to keep it all together. While some of the episodes, like her child getting prosthetic Spock ears, are not easy to relate to (although fun to read), most of the little vignettes (spills, glares from other parents in the playground, shared postpartum rooms, poorly timed spills and accidents, etc.) made me nod, "I've been there." Speaking as an urban parent myself, I feel Kogan captures the challenges of navigating a wide range of parenting styles in a closely-packed, high-pressure environment wittily and perceptively.