Amanda Bright Home

Rating:
Summary: Amanda needs some new friends!
Review: As a first time mom (stuggling with the "work or stay at home" dilemma) and a DC beltway refugee, I assumed I would find some resonance in this book. Boy, was I wrong.

First, there are no really likable characters. Amanda is ambivalent to the point of irritation. Her husband is emotionally distant and dismissive. Her "friends" are truly awful - rich, vain, and totally self centered. Her relationship with her two small children often seems devoid of genuine affection.

She is ashamed of every aspect of her life: her modest house, her used car, the behavior of her "robust" 5 year-old son.

She lives in an ethnically and economically diverse neighborhood within the DC city line, yet chooses to hang out with a bunch of rich women from the burbs, all the while feeling inferior and embarassed.

Note to Amanda: load your kids into the stroller and take a walk through your own neighborhood. You'll probably find 5 other moms who, like you, cannot afford to redecorate their houses, have their eyes done, or summer somehwere exotic. You'd be much happier sitting in your back yard with them drinking cheap wine than joining these snotty woman at their country club.

It's true that women who decide to have children cannot "have it all," but they can come a hell of a lot closer, and be a hell of a lot happier than this.

Rating:
Summary: Why not the 'burbs?
Review: Crittendon excels at describing some of the emotions and situations that come with motherhood and home life. She doesn't have easy answers, which is fine. It's an entertaining novel. I found it amusing that Amanda wouldn't even consider moving to the suburbs. The DC suburbs are full of intelligent and compassionate people, even in - gasp - Rockville. The schools are good too. Why should Amanda live in Woodley Park anyway if she needs a map to find her way around the zoo?

Rating:
Summary: Only got halfway through
Review: I just couldn't get into this book. The fact that Amanda couldn't catch a break ANYWHERE started to get on my nerves. I read the other reviews here and skipped to the end to see if the ending was as ridiculous as everyone said. I must say I concur with everyone else!

I should have chucked this after Chapter 1, when Amanda snapped at her three year old daughter for saying "Indian princess" instead of "Native Amercian princess". Who the heck yells at a three year old for that?! I know this is only fiction, but if I ever came across this woman in real life, I would run the other way fast, taking MY three year old daughter with me!

Rating:
Summary: A boring woman in an interesting world?
Review: There must be a term for this: where the central character is bland and nondescript while all of the others in the book are categorically defined (the snob, the workaholic, the good ole boy, the princess, the venomous boss, just as examples). So Amanda is something of a jellyfish: she left her career to stay at home with her children, but she's not a particularly happy, energetic, or creative stay at home mom, but she doesn't really want to go back to work, and she lives in an upper middle class neighborhood but tries to enter the more upper class world, and doesn't feel comfortable there, but ... you get the picture.

I read this about 6 months ago and I liked it a lot more than most of the reviews I'm reading here. It was fun to get a glimpse of her life. There were some hilarious scenes and touching observations. Amanda ultimately became interesting not because of her unique personal characteristics, but because of her experiences (through "crisis"). So ultimately I really liked this book but I felt that Amanda was a flawed woman - a little bit spineless perhaps.

Rating:
Summary: Stay-At-Home Parents Must Read
Review: When her son Ben cries when she drops him off at daycare, and continues this habit a month later, Amanda Bright decides to leave her job at the N.E.A. to become a stay-at-home mother. Now that Ben is older, and daughter Sophie has been added to the family, Amanda finds herself questioning her decision.

This uncertainty leaves her feeling unfulfilled and circumstances are not on her side. Her husband is given the lead on one of the biggest Department of Justice anti-trust cases of the century.

Her perpetually beautiful friend Susie falls in love with a millionaire and is given a national television show. Even her friend Liz, another mother who gave up her career to raise her children, adds to the burden by telling Amanda that she needs to own up to her decision of staying at home for the children.

But what good has being there for her children done when Ben is constantly in trouble at school and with the mothers of the children in his play group? She continues to defend her child, standing up to the school as well as the other mothers as much as she can.

What Amanda really wants is a moment of peace, the chance to take a nap or a bath undisturbed. As her husband's role in the anti-trust case unravels from lead to possibly being fired, and Amanda discovers that she is pregnant, they must figure out the best thing to do for themselves as well as the children.

Any parent who has been faced with the heartrending choice of career versus family will relate to the character of Amanda Bright. He or she will understand the moments of pain and frustration as well as the moments of pure joy that reaffirm the decision to stay at home. Danielle Crittenden shows Amanda at the high points as well as the low points, making her a wonderfully honest and funny, fully-rounded character.