Customer Reviews

The Big Rumpus: A Mother's Tale From the Trenches

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yes, I love this book. Yes, I love this author. For all of the reasons the other 5 Star reviewers gave. Of all the parenting books I read (and you know it's a lot--I'm reviewing on Amazon.com for God's sake), this one felt the most real in a "let out a big sigh and realize I'm normal" sort of way. Thanks, Ayun! BTW: she has a zine which just extends your Big Rumpus pleasure. Look up East Village Inky on your search engine. You'll find her.

I bought this book 2 weeks after having my third child and it is one of the funniest and most clever books I have read concerning motherhood. Ayun has a way of making you laugh at things that can normally traumatize us Moms, and gives a peek into the bohemian life of a very interesting couple and their children who live in NYC. The Big Rumpus is also appealing in that it is just written well. Not only is it worth the money that you will spend, you will end up buying it for your friends. I loved it!

Somebody published a book about my fifth wife's overgrown buttocks. Simply amazing and surprisingly good reading. HHD.

I disagree with most reviews posted here for one major reason. I absolutely cannot relate to the mother in this book. My days as a stay at home mom of 2 toddler boys consists of shopping at Target, potty training and praying that I make it through dinner time without losing my voice, my patience and my mind. Halliday, however, writes about the perils of getting her children into the perfect private preschool, hobnobbing with stay at home socialite moms, and the trials and tribulations of her husbands advancing career. Not a bad book, just not good for those of us who would have liked to use the 3 minutes of peace we sometimes have to read about somebody else in the same boat.

The only thing I didn't like about this book was that the author (Halliday) is a writer in NY and not my next door neighbor. She's the type of writer that makes you feel like you're reading a letter from a friend. She's hilarious and very down to earth.

She's so skillful at making you feel like she's your friend...True Story: My husband and I just became Disney Vacation Club members...I was thinking of friends we could invite long and I swear for a split second I thought "Oh, we'll invite the Halliday family!" But don't worry, my delusional confusion ended quickly. I remembered that she was just someone I had read about in a book and not one of my crazy friends.

Anyway, buy the book and read it so you can have delusions too!!! We can start a club.

This book is hilarious. You will laugh out loud a hundred times. If you don't like the first few pages, keep going. You'll get used to her style and personality and you will be so glad you kept going. I think this book is in the same category as Operating Instructions, and A Life's Work. They tell it like it really is!

1. Shows the absurdity of my thinking I knew how to parent...
2. Shows that "Parenting Skills" is king of oxymorons...
3. "A-yun" is now my decorating style of choice...
4. "To Halliday" is the verb I now use to describe the hide-&-seek of a preschooler's laundry...
5. I now extend the 10 second rule for fallen food items to minutes, maybe even days...
6. I smile every time I see a babysitter with young children...
7. I smile WIDER every I see a mother with her young children...
8. I have totally fallen in love again with my stay-at-home wife...
A WONDERFUL read, Ayun... I rolled on the Maypo-&-Cheerio-encrusted floor the entire time, cover-to-cover... Give us more, please!

Ayun Halliday is SO openly honest in The Big Rumpus. She lets it all hang out and doesn't care who sees. She's proof that you CAN still hang onto that creative shred of a life that once existed before your children came along. Ayun doesn't just make it okay that your children wear hand-me-downs and find some of their tastiest snacks on the unswept floor beneath the kitchen table - she makes it something to be proud of! What a refreshing take on the world of motherhood!

I read this book right after giving birth to my first child and it was SO GREAT to have Ayun's voice telling the truth and making it funny. Her children are great characters, her drawings are hilarious, and I'd recommend this book to anyone who has a family.

It's so great to see women authors opening the Pandora box that is motherhood, and breaking the silence. The Big Rumpus is a quick, light read that illuminates the travails of motherhood with uncommon wit and candor. The Zygote Chronicles, by Suzanne Finnamore, is another must-read in this genre -- not as fluffy and sweet, but just as hilarious and startlingly poignant as well. I also, of course, liked Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott -- the gold standard.