HEALTH

Separation Anxiety By Laura Zigman, Penguin Random House, $37

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A pity about the cover art for this book — a cartoony drawing of a woman pushing the word separation — because the book is better than that.

Judy is wearing her dog in a baby sling. It comforts her, and life is not going as she planned it. She used to be a successful children’s book author. She used to have a happy and loving marriage.

Now her career has tanked, she has a sullen teenager, a husband who smokes a lot of dope and doesn’t seem to work and has a girlfriend, and they can’t afford to divorce.

It’s at times funny, quirky and laugh out loud, but at the heart of it the story is sad, heartbreaking and a contemporary examination of a marriage.

Judy is unafraid to reveal her many insecurities, and it’s nice to see that the nutter (apart from the dog wearing) is actually the anxietyridden husband who uses his many anxieties as a reason for not participate in his marriage or in the working world.

This story is much better than it appears, and examines all the foibles of modern life. — Linda Thompson