Rating: 
Summary: Danielle Crittenden Gets It Right@HOME
Review: A novel taking a snapshot of a given moment in history, capturing the multiple dynamics going on in the economy, society, and politics, works brilliantly in the present day when it details the struggles a typical couple is going through, leading many readers to think, "Oh yes, this story is about me/us down to a tee!" Danielle Crittenden's downright honest, soul-searching Amanda Bright@HOME is one such novel, and it succeeds enough that years into the 21st century, when many people wonder, "How did we end up this way?" they'll go back to this book.The story: thirtysomething Amanda Bright has given up her career to stay at home and mind her two children while her husband Bob works at the Department of Justice. A break comes when her husband becomes involved in an antitrust suit against Megabyte, a software giant. However, the time spent on the case creates a larger rift between them that eventually erupts into interpersonal conflict. The underlying conflict within Amanda always comes back to balancing her loyalties to her husband and children as wife/mother while at the same time wondering whether she should go back to work. There is the feeling of self-worth, self-affirmation, self-fulfillment of the feminist 70's, in conflict with the 1950's selflessness in being Donna Reed, child-rearer, cook, etc. Which leads her to wonder constantly: "why not go back to work?" The title really gives me pause to think. Amanda was bright in her working career, but @ home, looking after her children, getting the household chores done, and all to make things presentable to her husband by the time he comes home is quite a struggle with her, which goes back to the conflict within. When the sound of vacuuming is perceived as beneficially drowning the children's screaming and howling, it's time for some heavy duty introspection. She is the one who has to deal with some rather unfriendly school teachers and officials who are unsympathetic to her son Ben, whom they say is being "violent." Even around the gatherings with her fellow women, she feels alienated and insecure because of their higher status. From the 1980's onwards, the career woman was on the rise, with or without Mr. Mom, to use a movie reference. Anyone wanting to have a Donna Reed-like family structure would either have to have a CEO breadwinner (clearly I'm exaggerating) or be willing to live with enough to cover essentials but no extras that demonstrates one's social status. It's sad how the measure of social standing, self-esteem, and happiness is measured by material things. It's OK if one is single, but if one has a couple of offspring to mind, it's important to become friends with Mr. Dollar. It also makes me think how much of a global, digital, efficient, and impersonal world we have entered with the New Economy. The title of the book, Amanda Bright@HOME, in an e-mail format smacking of the Internet Age, attests to this. Crittenden injects some wit in her book from page one, about a minefield of toys, and a room that "looked as if it had been attacked by Suicide Bomber Ken." And despite the turmoil that takes place in the novel, there is a note of hope within this mechanized mindset of a world. A house-husband, Alan, tells Amanda not to worry about Ben: "The world is always trying to put your kid into some sort of box, and you may as well learn early on how to fight your way out of it." Too true, and it applies to us even as adults. Perhaps that's why I still haven't found my destiny--this reluctance to be pigeonholed in a box. Reviewer's note: I had the honour to read a personally signed copy of this novel sent to me courtesy of David Frum, Ms. Crittenden's husband and talented author in his own right, and it was equally an honour to review it.
Rating: 
Summary: They can dish it out . . .
Review: The negative reviews I've read here prove Danielle Crittenden's point precisely: that there really ARE such incredibly pretentious people as Amanda's friends and the staff at her kids' school, that they are deadly serious about what they are doing, and that they find it perfectly OK to ridicule conservatives, pro-lifers, and evangelical Christians but can't take the heat themselves. The bit about Ben's peanut butter cookie transgression had me rolling, and I hope Amanda's friend Liz in onto something with her embrace of "motherhood feminism." Only time will tell. People, this is called SATIRE, and this book ranks up there among the most deliciously nasty one of the conservative variety since Tom Wolfe's "Bonfire of the Vanities" and Cyra McFadden's "The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County."
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Stay Inside the Beltway
Review: I agree with the other reviewer who said Amanda should get out and meet her own urban neighbors instead of aspiring to be a snooty suburban drone. As a mom who lives in a middle-to-upper-middle-class neighborhood in D.C., I can tell you there are many, many fascinating, compassionate, fun moms to befriend. These folks can wax poetic about the news of the day, and, at the same time, volunteer to pick up your kids for you in crunch. Maybe Amanda would have felt less beleaguered by her children and jealous of her husband's accomplishments if she hung out with a more intellectual crowd that offered her real support and comaraderie.
Also, the author's portrayal of her Woodley Park neighborhood as being a bit "edgy" is inaccurate. You'd be hard pressed to find a home selling for less than $500,000 there these days. The 'priviledged' suburban moms who have to spend endless hours in beltway traffic shuttling their children to elite schools in the city should be jealous of Amanda's lifestyle. Too bad the protagonist never took stock of her life and realized just how good she had it.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is going to choke on its preacyness
Review: What happens when a rich, Republican, pundit woman decides to write a book about of all things motherhood? Amanda.bright@home, that's what.
As a person who is, by choice of profession, forced to observe there sorts of people in their natural habitat, ie, acting like their lack of personality can be made up for by their "good jobs," I know this sort.
I read the book in the Wall Street Journal serialized format, and boy I am I glad I didn't pay for it. I could save my money for something actually worthwhile, like a book written by an actual expert, with an actual college degree, which I read this author does not have.
Does this woman ever know how to whine!!! She is so full of herself, I'm surprised she can even go to the bathroom without contemplating the feminist consequences of her decision. The children and husband are completely one dimensional, only present to make "Amanda" feel one way or another.
If this person is so against the life that the other, richer Washington people she is surrounded by, why does she in painful detail note every part of their house and every piece of clothing their children wear?
And another thing-what is with these names? Ok, we get it-your a Washington insider. Only a person who is in this world calls it Justice, Treasury or State. That's the sign you give to the world-I am in this world. That's for starters. America is Talking-is that supposed to be America Online? What kind of lunatic would name their company that? Megabyte-ok, so that's supposed to be Microsoft, right? Maybe a little less time checking out the tone on your butt and a little more time researching those names would have added something, like depth to this book?
My mother worked and then was a stay at home mom with me. It was what women did-they stayed at home with their children. I don't remember my mother contemplating if she was being a good feminist or not. I also don't remember her complaining that she was bored. She had time to indulge in her interests and that's what she did. This "Amanda" person really just needs to get a life.
Subject matter-questionable. Quality of writing-not a day beyond the sixth grade.
Resist temptation to buy.
Rating:
Summary: yawn.
Review: I'm a male in my mid 20's, and was given a copy of this by my mother...
Granted I may not be the target audience, but I don't think I could imagine a more boring or detached central character. A selfish, judgmental and frankly meanspirited character, her instincts are more paranoid than concerned, isolationist than focused, and submissive versus empowering.
Anyone who reads this and see this character as a positive female roll model would be happiest watching Leave it to Beaver reruns and spend the rest of the time daydreaming about a husband. Overall, a disinteresting and predicable story with the irrelevant values of a age long gone. At best, it's cute. At worst, it's attempting to advocate a worldview that thankfully has gone the way of the bridal dowry.
Rating: 
Summary: Good concept, very flawed execution
Review: As a professional and an ex-military man that decided to stay home to take care of our son, I was interested when I heard about the book. I too would describe myself as politically conservative and a proponent of traditional family values, like Danielle. I believe that the country needs to know about millions of fellow Americans who discover that full-time child rearing (one of the greatest responsibilitites a person can shoulder, yet considered shameful and inadequate in popular culture) is more fulfilling than a professional career. This book is not the best way, though. First of all, I was put off by the fact that practically everyone aside from Amanda, her husband and children were portrayed as villains or losers. Her mother, her best friend, all the other stay-at-home parents she knows are unpleasant, selfish, and plain-creepy. Maybe this is supposed to be fashionable and funny, but it's the kind of shallow, fluffy chracterization I would expect from TV shows for urban singles, not a writer that is trying to say something about what it is like to stay home in a career-obsessed culture. There is a stay-at-home father in the book also, and predictably, he is described as a complete wimp. Believe me, I'm a former Marine and I've needed all the physical and mental conditioning I got in the military to raise our boy for the past four years. I don't know any stay-at-home parents that are wimps (you can't cut it in this job if you are), and this stuff made me think that Danielle may not actually know a lot of real parents, ones without nannies to do their dirty work. Another thing that made me think they should rewrite the copy on the back is that there's not a whole lot of child rearing going on in Amanda's life. She's not a stay-at-home mom as much as stay-at-home wife, constantly talking about her husband's career. The kids don't get a lot of air time. Somebody needs to write this book again, and do it right.
Rating:
Summary: It is unbelievably how terrible this book is
Review: Despite all the not-so-subtle rhetoric laced on every adjective addled sentence, this book is awful. The characters are thin and obvious; the events are staged and the narrative structure is no better than a high schooler's creative writing project. The latter would probably be more creative, still. If you are looking to fulfill your political-literary needs or need to feel better about your views, read some nonfiction psychobabble by some other lunatic, possibly the author herself. If this book teaches anything, it is to know your place! So, bad journalists should know their place and not try to move into fiction (there are enough bad writers) just because conservative publishing is currently marketable and will make them a buck they don't need.
Rating:
Summary: Insightful for all sick of modern "life".
Review: Crittenden shows the real life of a woman who valiantly decides to go home and be a mother. One could expect some sweet tale of perpetual fulfillment with only slight, ideological battles from this conservative writer. But, no. Actually it shows what happens when the ooze of pride and warmth of a new experience wear off and this educated woman, with an active mind, realizes her life is now car-pools and diapers. Although one has to pay attention, practical applications of ideology pop up everywhere. A great moment is when Grandma Bright (a hard-core feminist from the old days) brings the children gifts. Gifts that would make Gloria Allred proud: for the toddler girl, Sophie, it's a bulldozer, for the kindergarten age Ben, a sand painting kit. The children within seconds trade gifts, thus restoring that natural order.
An easy read that all, especially husbands who think they know what it's like for stay-at-home moms, should try.
Rating:
Summary: Truth from Inside the Beltway
Review: Something that I liked about this book that other reviewers have skipped over a bit is the way it raises the curtain on upper-middle-class life in Washington, D.C. This is, obviously, the centre of American political life and also Ground Zero for the American civilization -- a civilization that is defending itself against various extremist groups around the world who envy American prestige and power. Those who envy America and think of it only in propganda terms forget, or are oblivious to, not only the poverty and hardship that endures in the world's richest nation, but also the anxiety and self-doubt that often consumes those people who appear to "have it all." From this perspective, Amada Bright @ Home transcends the "chick lit" genre and should be of interest to everyone, including men and also perhaps sociologists years from now, long after the fashions and tastes of Amanda's generation have passed into history. We've all heard of the term "post modern" -- this book offers an insightful glimpse into the "post feminist" world, and what it feels like to live inside the fish bowl world of Washington. I'm sure many feminists will dislike it, as it reveals unsettling truths about what they left behind. Hopefully this book is only the first installment in Crittenden evolving into the Jane Austin of our time. Time will tell, but this is an excellent start.
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