Book Review: ‘Separation Anxiety’ By Laura Zigman

The Vogel family is very dysfunctional. Mother Judy is a best-selling author from years ago who has lost her creative edge and has had writers block for a long time now. Her husband Gary suffers from anxiety and smokes a lot of pot instead of taking pills. He has a prescription for it. He works as a snackologist. They have a 13 year old son named Teddy, who’s starting to act live a typical teen. Her best friend is dying of cancer. They’re broke beyond broke and behind on their bills. Judy and Gary’s marriage is over and it’s only because he can’t afford to move out, they haven’t divorced. He sleeps in the basement.

Judy finds a baby sling in the basement and decides to wear it and put her dog in it. She carries it around like a baby almost everywhere she goes and gets strange looks. It’s like a therapy dog for her and keeps her calmed down. Throughout the book Judy has weird experiences with Gary (they love each other and it’s a wonder why they’re not together), her son, the school where he goes and puppet people.

I really like this book for it’s quirkiness and the well-written characters. Author Laura Zigman has written a novel that could be about any family that suffers from issues in their past that affects them today. You really do root for Judy and Gary throughout the story. There’s some funny moments that will make you chuckle out loud. Once you start you won’t want to put it down.

You can pick up Separation Anxiety in stores from ECCO on Tuesday, March 3rd.