About the Author

Susan Cheever is the bestselling author of thirteen previous books, including five novels and the memoirs Note Found in a Bottle and Home Before Dark. Her work has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Boston Globe Winship Medal. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a member of the Corporation of Yaddo, and a member of the Author's Guild Council. She teaches in the Bennington College M.F.A. program. She lives in New York City with her family.

Reviews

Los Angles Herald Examiner Out of the pain of real life, Susan Cheever has created a document that is ultimately a paean to family love.

Philadelphia Inquirer It is Cheever's ability to dive suddenly from the surface to the deeper places of the soul.

The New York Times Book Review Cheever's writing has true resonance.

Noted author and mother Cheever (daughter of the great American writer John Cheever) reflects on the importance of motherhood and tells us what having children has meant in her own life. Although not a how-to manual for raising children, Cheever's memoir will encourage readers in their efforts to follow their own paths in parenting. Cheever talks about her mistakes (e.g., she battled alcoholism for many years, recounted in Note Found in a Bottle, which led to her daughter's health problems) and how she corrects them; she also analyzes her successes, which she attributes to establishing authority in the parent-child relationship. This sense of authority, which is at the core of Cheever's philosophy on parenting, is not absolute and autocratic but rather comes from the belief that parents must leave their childhood behind and become adults in their relationships with their children. This sensitive and touching narrative will appeal to a broad range of readers. Recommended for most libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/01.] Kay Brodie, Chesapeake Coll., Wye Mills, MD Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Los Angles Herald Examiner Out of the pain of real life, Susan Cheever has created a document that is ultimately a paean to family love.
Philadelphia Inquirer It is Cheever's ability to dive suddenly from the surface to the deeper places of the soul.
The New York Times Book Review Cheever's writing has true resonance.