About the Author

Melanie Gideon lives in San Francisco with her husband and son. Her essay 'A Diesel Engine Woke Up My Marriage' originally in the NEW YORK TIMES and caused an tide of empathy from fellow housewives who were wondering, 'How did I get here?!'

Reviews

First-time memoirist Gideon opens with what appears to be a midlife, marital crisis, recounting her vague malaise with her comfortable but banal existence as an upper-middle-class wife and mother. However, the titular "slippery year" turns out to be simply a contrived way to link 12 essays, which are all essentially meditations on the author's various fears and neuroses and the absurdities of modern life. Gideon is a good writer, and her essays are filled with striking and often amusing observations, but they never coalesce into a coherent whole. Read her insightful takes on modern life in bites. Readalike: Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love.-Lauren Gilbert, Cold Spring Harbor Library and Environmental Center, NY Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.