A Little Bit Married
Published by: Crown Publishing GroupISBN13: 978-1400082247
Buy the Book: Amazon, Barnes & Noble
Overview
What happens when domestic bliss isn't what it’s cracked up to be, and cracking up isn’t an option?
From the time she was a girl, Bitsy Beberman had her entire future planned. She would marry after college, move to the suburbs, and have babies. At age 43, with everything in place, Bitsy's life should be one of contentment. Instead, Bitsy’s kids are misbehaving in mortifying ways, her husband repeatedly suffers vague "accidents," her mother-in-law continues to torment her. Worse, every humiliation is being recorded by her seemingly perfect neighbors and broadcast throughout her seemingly perfect town, reinforcing her fear that her name–Bitsy–aptly describes what her life has become, little bits and nothing significant. A Little Bit Married is the tale of one woman’s struggle to keep the pieces together as her idyllic world falls apart.
Praise
"Borden's second novel (following Lucky Me) features Bitsy Lerner, 43 and a mother of two in the 'burbs, gets jolted out of her routines when she finds her husband, Alan, on the floor, overdosed on Vicodin. With Alan in rehab, Bitsy, shocked by her family's debt-ridden finances and crumbling emotional infrastructure, flashes back over her idyllic childhood, ambivalent college art studies and single-mindedness about marrying. In this dark finding-myself comedy, the arrival of housekeeper Bebe (courtesy of Grandma) and a focus outward and artward may save Bitsy's inner sanctum, sense of self and recalcitrant brood—just in time for Alan's return."
—Publishers Weekly
"Bitsy came of age in the 1980s and anachronistically set her goals to be a 1950s-style wife and mom. Through sheer will and planning, she achieved it all—businessman husband, perfect suburban home, two accomplished children—until she finds her husband near death from an overdose. He survives, but his memory doesn't. Managing on her own forces her to see the cracks in the facade that were always there, but she also recaptures the pleasure she derived from art. Bitsy finally grows up, remembers her name is Barbara, finds a job, and has her eyes opened to other people's troubles as well as her own. A lot happens in the six weeks of her husband's recovery. When he regains his memory, he also remembers his mistress. Bitsy finds maturity, wisdom, strength, creativity, friends, and, of course, a new romance. Her perfect, planned life was hollow, but what she builds from the wreckage is pretty good. Solutions come awfully quickly, but this is fiction. Enjoy it."
—Booklist