The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780393088687)

In a voice that is wry, disarming, and totally candid, Sandra Tsing Loh tells the moving and laugh-out-loud tale of her roller coaster through "the change." This is not your grandmother's menopause story. Loh chronicles utterly relatable, everyday perils: raising preteen daughters, weathering hormonal changes, and going through the ups and downs of a career and a relationship. She writes also about an affair and the explosion of her marriage, the pressures of keeping her daughters off Facebook while managing the legal and marital hijinks of her eighty-nine-year-old dad, and a despairing withdrawal to a tiny cabin where she combined wine and Ambien, paralyzing her arm into a claw. In one outrageous chapter, a hormonal Loh finds herself trekking to her preteen daughter's school to confront a ten-year-old bully half her size. In another she attempts to subsist on only zero-calorie noodles and the occasional fat-free yogurt in a hopeless effort to vanquish added midlife weight.

In The Madwoman in the Volvo Loh speaks hilariously and honestly about her life as a mother, a daughter, and an artist. She recounts her journey through a tumultuous time of life, trying to maintain appearances during an epic hormonal--and that means physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual--change. The upbeat conclusion: it does get better.

Author: Sandra Tsing Loh
ISBN-10: 0393088685
ISBN-13: 9780393088687
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 05/05/2014
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.01lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.10w x 1.40d

Review Citation(s):
Booklist 03/15/2014 pg. 41
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2014
Publishers Weekly 03/31/2014
Shelf Awareness 05/06/2014
New York Times Book Review 06/08/2014 pg. 16
NY Times Notable Bks of Year 12/07/2014 pg. 28