Book Review - The Slippery Year

The Slippery Year by Melanie Gideon
Orion, $32.99

If you love confessional domestic trivia, this memoir is for you. At 44, Gideon is one of those typical American neurotics who has mastered the art of self mockery. Sometimes she’s irritatingly self-indulgent, but she never spares herself in laying bare her foibles, inviting the reader into the life she shares with a long-suffering husband and surprisingly well-adjusted son. An East Coaster transplanted to lifestyle-mad California, her radar for West Coast silliness redeems her spoiled princess personality. Hardly an annus horribilis, (there’s no adultery, divorce or tragedy) this is just an average year of managing marriage, family and the odd twinge of regret – who hasn’t been there?