Separation Anxiety

Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Judy’s marriage is crumbling, her writing career is stalled out, and her best friend is dying of cancer. One day while cleaning out the house that (due to the economic reality of divorce) she still shares with her pot-addled husband Gary, she finds an unused baby sling that at one time intended to use with her son Teddy, now 13. Perhaps it is the disconnect she feels with her son, her husband, or her dreams…but something snaps and seeking a physical closeness she cannot get with her family, she seeks out the 20-pound family dog and puts her in the sling…and wearing her all the time.

And away we go…Judy starts off wearing the dog around the house and then she graduates to wearing it outside the house. And then when the same economic reality that forces two separated people to live in the same house also threatens Teddy’s ability to stay in school, Judy agrees to offer boarding to a weird and fully immersive performance troupe called the Puppet People, which causes Judy and Gary to confront their issues while hiding them from strangers.

This is the second Zigman book I’ve read and I get the same kind of enjoyment that I got when I first discovered Tom Perrotta. I feel compelled to seek out everything she has written. The writing is crisp and funny and absurd and the whole time I felt like I was in good hands. The situation is deliberately ridiculous but within that is a level of insight about life and second chances and the direction that it can take you.




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