Rating: 
Summary: big city gal gives birth to great book
Review: Built on the bones of her four-year-old 'zine, The East Village Inky, Halliday's book expands on the experiences of (in her phrase) "a certain transplanted Hoosier mother tromping around Brooklyn, the East Village and several subway lines, more or less joyously burdened with an infant, a coughing three-thumbed three-year-old desperate to kiss him, a big broken orange bag, a Bug's Life lunchbox, an ill-advised plastic sackful of bulk food and a deteriorating stroller." Fans of her quarterly, hand-lettered, forty page 'zine will find the same irreverent, self-deprecating tone in Halliday's tales of rearing her young in the asphalt jungle (though they'll have to settle for a mere half dozen of her endearingly quirky pen-and-ink illustrations). A former massage therapist, off-off-Broadway actress, and waitress, Halliday had feared that her urban hipster life was over after the birth of her first child, India (the eponymous "Inky"). Instead, she's transformed the minutiae of their daily doings into these funky and often touching stories that embrace universal themes (high-spirited preschoolers, sleep deprivation, weaning) while providing a nose-against-the-glass tour of big city life with kids: falafel joints, rooftop parties, and multi-culti friendships forged on tarmacked playgrounds. Mommy voyeurism at its best.
Rating:
Summary: every parent should have this in their bathroom
Review: Buy this book! Support this woman! It is simply the funniest thing I've ever read about parenting, totally honest, totally true, totally self-indulgent, but, because it's just like my life, totally worth it. Halliday's writing flows easily and jucily; she has a wonderful way of knowing her children are exceptional, but understanding that your children are exactly the same way; she can show how tedious and dreadful it is to be a stay at home parent while at the same time revealing why it is so worth it. (It is worth it, isn't it?) Her zine, East Village Inky, from which the book is largely drawn, is equally wonderful.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful book, not Erma Bombeck-y AT ALL
Review: Comparing this to the EB is unfair. Ayun is funny and smart in an ultra-self conscious, unselfconscious way, where Ermy B is smug & trite. Not to play favorites, but I'd choose Ayun's stuff in a second. And your mom will agree.
Rating: 
Summary: The truth is finally told!
Review: Here's the best endorsement that any mother of two young ones can give: I finished it! Ayun is so funny and engaging that I roared to the end despite the constant baby and child interruptions that she describes so well. This is one book about mothering that won't wind up in the dusty pile of half-read books that lurk next to the bed.
Rating:
Summary: Laughing and Loving Big
Review: I am probably the last mom on the block to read Ayun Halliday's hilarious momior, THE BIG RUMPUS (Seal Press, 2002). I wish I had read it sooner. Rarely does a book force me to put it down while I laugh. This one did. My husband kept looking at me suspiciously as I chuckled to myself, holding my sides. He may have been wondering if I was laughing at him. But no, I was laughing at the high-density, fast-paced, irony-laden, stand-up comedy routine that Halliday offers up to her readers alongside a coffee and bagel. I got a caffeine contact buzz just from reading it. You might know New Yorker Halliday from the quarterly zine she publishes, THE EAST VILLAGE INKY, but if you don't, it is time to get acquainted, especially for mama writers. The opening chapter about the beginning of the zine describes the author's desire to make her life into art, and will resonate with any mother who thinks she has caught a glimpse of the creative potential inherent in motherhood. Halliday shows us a hip, less than perfect mother who writes and draws and loves through the chaos of child care, housekeeping, and the streets of the Big Apple. While she mourns the identity she lost as a radical theater performer, she revels in her new role as revolutionary mama writer, freeing the city she loves from dangerous mother stereotypes. I found her book refreshing and entertaining. But it isn't all laughs. I was also moved by Halliday's more introspective moods, as when she describes her daughter's stay in the intensive care unit that followed her birth. Or when she says what we all think but don't say about our fears that our children will die before us. Or when her mother love extends out into the world to mourn others' tragedies. These moments provide weight and depth to the book that help support the more general hilarity of other sections. As a mom who is not very hip myself, I found reading THE BIG RUMPUS to be a little like walking through urban streets wearing my country boots. But because Halliday is such a good guide, I was able to appreciate the local color, as well as find points of connection between the unfamiliar inhabitants of her world and the more familiar of mine. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to take herself, and motherhood, a little less seriously.
Rating:
Summary: A needed laugh and perspective
Review: 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!
Rating:
Summary: Yeah baby!!
Review: I can relate is all I have to say! Life as a mother/parent is hard enough without everyone out there telling us what we're doing wrong. This mama is in the trenches. She tells it like it is with humor that keeps me on my toes! Ayun has style. Not gag me style. TRUE mama style. She shops at thrift shops, stoop sales and isn't afraid to admit it! By the time you are finished with THE BIG RUMPUS, if you aren't already an East Villiage Inky subscriber, you will run out and become one! The humor is great and basically it's the underlying moral of the story. Keep our chins up and keep smiling....what are the alternatives??! : )
Rating:
Summary: What a page turner
Review: I could not put this book down! Ayun Halliday captures the joys and frustrations of mothering so beautifully. She manages to talk about those dark four o'clock in the afternoon moments where your kids drive you nuts with great accuracy, but also with so much wit. If you are a parent, this will ring many bells and make you laugh out loud. If you are not a parent, it becomes a gripping story about contemporary life and the juggling act that parenting without the support of an extended family has become.
Rating: 
Summary: Expected better
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent!
Review: I don't know if I love this book more for its honesty or its easy-flowing prose. All I do know is that I had a hard time putting it down and was very sad when I had finished, much as I've felt about every issue of Halliday's spectacular zine East Village Inky. Halliday is not afraid to tell her readers what parenting is really like, from the horrors of labor to the horrors of toddlerhood. But lest you think this book is only about the horrors, Halliday and her family share a lot of humorous and touching moments amdist the misdeeds and mistakes. You will not only feel for them, you will grow to love them too. And while I'm not an expert on poetry, The Big Rumpus felt to me like the world's best poem. It sucked me in with its powerful imagery and bittersweet emotions and left me feeling refreshed and alive, both as a parent and a person.
|
