The Big Rumpus: A Mother's Tale from the Trenches (Live Girls) | 
|  | | | Title: | The Big Rumpus: A Mother's Tale from the Trenches (Live Girls) | | Author: | Ayun Halliday | | Publisher: | Seal Press | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 26 February, 2002 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 1580050719 / 9781580050715 | | List Price: | $15.95 | | You Save: | $5.10 | | Amazon Price: | $10.85 | |
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
Twenty years ago a woman named Erma Bombeck brought the suburban family out of the closet—dust bunnies and all. Her honest, hilarious accounts of family life, where the “grass is always greener over the septic tank,” became more than mere books; they became a philosophy. Ayun Halliday is a new generation’s urban Bombeck. Creator of the wildly popular parenting zine The East Village Inky, Halliday’s words and line drawings describe the quirks and everyday travails of a young urban family, warts and all. Honest in her parenting foibles and fixed in her opinions on public breast-feeding and the perfect Halloween costume, Halliday’s wry observations on daily life validate the complex, absurd wondrousness that is the life of the unpaid caregiver. Reflecting on her daughter’s third thumb, declawing the cat, and debating her son’s circumcision, she writes: “My family has a highly complex relationship to amputation.” On appropriate knowledge for children: “All Inky wants to talk about is the murder of John Lennon. I think it’s my fault.” On lice: “Head lice were outed on the children’s program Arthur this year in an effort to de-stigmatize the problem. I guess I’m glad that lice have hit the mainstream, though what’s next for Arthur and his pals? Heroin addiction?” On family holidays: “Danged if it isn’t true—you really cannot recreate the Christmases of your childhood. I can’t even recreate the Christmases of my teens.” It is in the details that The Big Rumpus will delight. Halliday manages to capture a voice that so many of today’s parents hear in their own heads, in a way that is absolutely unique yet familiar. The Big Rumpus marks the debut of a major new talent who has formulated a whole new set of “operating instructions” for today’s families.
Amazon.com
Of the many stay-at-home mommies who dream of writing the Great American Novel, few actually try; fewer still get published. Though not a novel, The Big Rumpus certainly is the Great American Tale of one woman's schlep through early motherhood--honest, hilarious, and irresistibly naughty. Ayun Halliday, a highly caffeinated and refreshingly immodest city gal, acknowledges that motherhood is pretty much like contending with a cloud of locusts swarming toward one's wheat--then laughs her "heiner" off about it. Under her gifted muse's care, stories about childbirth, holiday acrobatics (sans religious ties), and raising two kids in a tiny New York apartment read like standup comedy routines; they also give way to bittersweet reflections on her own youth--goofy boyfriends, repressed sexual behavior, and all. Yes, she swears; yes, she delves deeply into issues anatomical, gastronomical, and diaporial. But for hip stay-at-homers who find sustenance in friendships honed at neighborhood playgrounds (not slapped together like cold deli meats at those contrived mommy-and-me meetings), Ayun Halliday might just become the patron saint of blissfully imperfect motherhood. Even mommies who lack Halliday's affinity for "unhusking" their breasts in public will find moments of empathy in this mirthful sprint through life as the family "Milk Monkey." --Liane Thomas
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Customer Reviews:
• Very Fun To Read - Totally Real Life Mom Stuff. 25 July, 2007
I just happened on one of Ayun's other books while on vacation, and man was that good luck for me. This book is great fun for moms to read, since you will relate with lots if not all of her stories. I love, love, LOVE her writing style. It is a totally down-to-earth, easy to read, true to life account of life right there in the thick of mommyhood! As a mom of a 7 year old sweetie pie girl and a 4 year old MANIAC (but adorable) male, I am right down there deep in those trenches. I want to read all her stuff so I also get her East Village Inky, Ayun's own personal Zine.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AMZT76U9AEGYH
• This Book Could Laugh You Into Labor... 16 June, 2008
Ayun Halliday felt like a sister to me after reading this hilarious memoir of her pregnancies and first years of motherhood. This woman will tell you the truth, no holds barred, and have you laughing until your water breaks. Raising children in New York City has got to be an adventure no matter how you do it, but Halliday brings adventure to even the most mundane experiences of motherhood. Her conscientious nature shows in the way she chooses to birth and nurture her children. Her wisdom and wit shines and her candid nature allows you to feel like one of her best friends. I highly recommend this to any woman who has ever had a baby or ever wants to.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A14ZDD3D4A1CYN
• Brilliant 20 March, 2007
Reading The Big Rumpus makes me want to move to New York City, have kids, and hang out with Ayun Halliday. It's not that Halliday shies away from pain and irritation of caring for small children. These essays detail such trials as the struggle to keep her baby boy from destroying the local library while his toddler sister chooses books; the frequent floor cleaning involved with the not-quite-potty-trained toddler; and, most touchingly, most painfully, the weeks of keeping watch in neo-natal intensive care unit when her newborn daughter contracts an infection. But despite these irritations, despite this grief--or even amongst the irritations, amongst the grief--there's this overriding sense of joy, of satisfaction that speaks to why I choose to work with children.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2RYW6D5EAPUTV
• Ehh. 18 March, 2007
While some of the author's words are touching and ring true (the excerpt on her daughter being in the NICU, for example), I found most of the book to be tiresome. Yes, we get it. You are so darn hip that you can't even bother trying to be hip. You are so hip that you don't care if your kids are dirty or if your daughter prances around naked in front of virtual strangers. You're so hip that you dress your son in your daughter's hand-me-downs and publish a ZINE in your spare time. Wow. We're all impressed with your hipness, your wry irreverence. You are so hip and so New York that we can barely stand it. Really, I can barely stand it. I'm gagging into my hand as I type.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1IVDJCFS42RBI
• I Give This Book To All My Expecting Girlfriends 21 March, 2007
I love this book. It makes me laugh and warms my heart. Honestly, there are few books that can truly make one laugh out loud, on the bus ride home after a day of work even. This is one of them. And it is a realistic portrayal of motherhood, a down to earth viewpoint that most people can appreciate. Have fun reading!
- Reviewed by customer ID: AQ3Z3URXOFL6W
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