The Slippery Year

by Melanie Gideon

Book Overview

For anybody who has ever wondered privately Is this all there is? Gideon's poignant, hilarious, exuberant meditation chronicles a year in which she confronts both the fantasies of her receding youth... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 030727067X
• ISBN13: 9780307270672
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Great Read -- Loved It!

I thought this was a great read -- thoroughly enjoyed the romp through a year of the author's life. Entertaining, thought-provoking, and unlike any other memoir or collection of essays about mid-life, mothering or marriage. The voice is fresh and the details are both hilarious and poignant. Being of similar age to the author, I could relate to her musings and adventures, her thoughts and feelings, her angst and concerns. I felt I learned something, too. But I really don't think you need to be a mid-life married mother to enjoy this book. It should resonate with anyone who wants to live life more fully. An introspective voice and one I'd love to read more from -- I hope there's more coming from this author!

Very entertaining!

I really enjoyed this book. Melanie Gideon, a married mother of one, shares her insights about midlife in such an honest and downright funny way that I could hardly put the book down. "The Slippery Year" is composed in somewhat of a diary format with a chapter for every month and every paragraph is about a new observation. Technically, you could start reading this book at any place and you would be able to get what the writer is talking about. But then you might miss some funny stuff in the prior pages. Such as the part where she explains the importance of being first in the car pool lane, or when she describes her experience of being stuck behind a person in the grocery check out lane that is having a lifestyle experience and moves very slowly. She also shares some of her feelings about letting go of her son that might be very familiar to other mothers. I was really impressed with her ability to write about serious issues while making you laugh out loud. My only regret with this book is that Gideon doesn't go into too much depth when addressing the issues of marriage and motherhood. In one passage she writes about a conversation she had with her friends about marriage, divorce and fidelity, where they wonder "How the hell are we going to stay married?" Gideon just leaves the reader with this question. But I would have loved to read some deeper insights from her. Overall, this was a quick, entertaining read and perfect for a day at the beach.

Wonderful, funny, and touching

This is truly the best book I have read in a very long time. I'm a huge fan of comedy, but there are very few books that I've actually laughed out loud while reading. Last night I laughed so hard while reading that I started crying. Gideon is incredibly witty, insightful, and so very HONEST about all the issues in her life- small and large. She covers everything from Halloween to her beloved dog's death to a hippy mom she meets in Trader Joe's to her reactions to her son's drawings of her to her husband weird obsession with vans. I have shared so many passages with my husband, and we've either cracked up together or just nodded our heads in unison over what we've read because it's all so true. There are a lot of memoirs right now about being a "grown up"; about living up to the expectations and hopes of other people- society, our families, our own parents, our peers, etc. This is a book about what happens when a person doesn't live up to her *own* expectations and hopes. Wow. I've never heard of Melanie Gideon before, but now she's on my radar. I can't wait to read more from her. If you enjoy dry humor and can handle honesty (no, being a mom and a wife and a grown-up ISN'T always a walk in the park and sometimes surviving every day events IS a great accomplishment), this book is a must-read. If you take life (or the mission of living a very fulfilled life) very seriously, pass on it.

A book for every woman...and every man.

I don't have kids, I don't like dogs, I am not afraid of earthquakes or fires ... however, I find this book stunning, beautiful, and relevant. Gideon, in her self-deprecating, insightful, and warm-hearted tenor, reflects upon the time in everyone life, at an age when there are more years behind you than ahead of you, and you wonders "is this all there is?" Women and men alike will relate to these years, the ones where you begin to question your decisions both past and present, and wonder how you got there. I love the fact that Gideon doesn't have to have a torrid affair, leave her husband, be destitute, ugly, or a wretch with a international drama to reach the reader. In fact, it's refreshing to read stories about a life that could be my own life. Men too, will love this book because it's not all about being a woman - it's about being human. The fact that Gideon has a lovely husband, a smart precocious child, is good-looking, and lives in a nice home, doesn't implicate happiness. We all have doubts, wealthy or poor, ugly or beautiful, successful or not, and Gideon confronts these doubts with reliable wit, and a level of introspection that succeeds without being overly sentimental or overly wrought. Anyone that reads this and can't find the humanity in it, should reflect on their own humanity, which I believe, is the point Gideon is trying to make. Bravo.

Poignant and Funny

I connected with Melanie Gideon right off; she's a transplanted New Englander living in California. She gets the joke of Chez Panisse and Alice Waters serving very wholesome... and boringly tasteless food; I mean you could get that in a New England Boiled Dinner for a heck of a lot less! And she's funny. Melanie Gideon makes me laugh out loud, because she nails life. Her husband is all about terrific food, gourmet food, good food and Melanie Gideon just doesn't care that much about food. She prefers to scrounge for dinner and he would prefer to think about it, shop for it, create it and enjoy it. And then suddenly Gideon touches on something poignant, "An hour after you've put your children to sleep, the ways in which you have wronged them sprawl out on your chest, all two hundred and fifty pounds of them, and suck the breath right out of you. It works the same with gratitude. An hour after your family has left the house, you love them with a piercing intensity that was nowhere to be fond when your were scraping egg yolk off their breakfast dishes. Your hope is to one day feel this way about them when they're in the room. This is a pretty lofty goal." And about forgetting and remembering, "I forget anything good that has ever happened to me almost immediately after it happens; I have no problem recalling every grudge, every slight and every rejection that has to do with being forgotten, overlooked or left for dead. This may be why there is no room in my brain to remember anything good." Melanie Gideon slips from one topic to another with an effortless grace that makes me laugh out loud and then suddenly come up short when she touches on the faults and failures we all have. Really a terrific book about every person's life told in a very personal first person account.