Let's say you are a suburban house wife with a lot of questions. Questions like "Is this really all there is?" or "Is safety actually first?" or "Why can't my 12 year old daughter make her own sandwich?" or "Why are mommies so mean to each other?" Or "Why do grown women refer to themselves as mommies?" Katie Roiphe might speak to you.
Let's say you are the mom who is so fucking thankful to be friends with the dad who actually brings mixed drinks in his thermos to back to school night and pours for all his friends, because, seriously, fourth grade art really is more interesting when you've had a drink or two. Or the mom, who, your daughter is happy to tell everyone, "has a real potty mouth" or as you'd say it, "swears like a sailor." Katie Roiphe might speak up for you.
Let's say you are just a little, vaguely worried that our obsessions with the glittering things: suburban homes with neat lawns, health and youth, and perfect children might be masking something, obscuring some messier part of our selves -- passion, desire, anger, all the honest, messy things you feel inside you-- then Katie Roiphe will give voice to that niggling itch of yours.
Dear Reader, if any of these are you, before you crack the cover of "In Praise of Messy Lives", be sure you want to scratch that itch...