REVIEWS

Book offers new twist in the career mom tale

Piece of Work by: Laura Zigman Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; Reprint edition (November 5, 2007) ISBN-10: 0446696005 ISBN-13: 978-0446696005

This book presents the plight of the stay-home-mom, what a woman would do to keep her house afloat, the realization that being with grown-ups can be rewarding and they can be as spoiled and more rotten than a three-year old, and the clarity that a stay-home-dad can do a better job than you, though you won’t admit it.

Julia Einstein loves being at home with her three-year-old son, Leo, whom she calls the “scoob”. She left the publicist world and traded spending her time dealing with spoiled grown-ups to dealing with the love of her life. But one day, her husband, Peter comes home early and announces, beer in hand, that he has been laid off.

For a few months they get by on his severance and then need to dip into their savings to survive. It becomes clear that Peter is not all that gung-ho in going back to work—he sabotages his job search—and so Julia decides she needs to be the grown in their tri-ad and looks for a job.

She comes to work for John Glom Public Relations, a firm that handles desperate has-beens, and her first client is Mary Ford, who is “terrific”, which in P.R. work means “a real piece of work.” They are helping Mary launch her perfume aptly named “Legend.”

The problem? The perfume stinks and Mary Ford is cruel. But in the past, when the toughest clients “chewed up and spit out” publicist, it was Julia who was called in to take over. But that was three years ago and the only dealings Julia has had in the tantrums category are the ones her toddle throws. But could dealing with an adult be any different?

Behind the scenes, Julia’s boss seems to be doing everything he can to sabotage his client’s comeback because he honestly thinks that negative publicity is the best way to garner Mary Ford the attention she needs. He knows that the perfume has been tested on animals and forwards this information onto Lindsay, Mary’s daughter who is an advocate for PETA and who is not only launching a public attack on her mother, but is writing a memoir, “Mary Dearest” as well. But despite the behind-the-scenes shenanigans, Mary is onto John, but does nothing to confront him because deep down inside, she knows that she has not been the best mother for her two kids and thus, does not fight her daughter either. But Julia wants a comeback not only for her but for Mary.

Julia convinces Mary that the best thing she can do is to embrace the tell-all book her daughter is writing in order to build a whole new relationship with her. There would be a new spin on this mother-daughter relationship which could help other mothers and daughters deal with their problems. Mary could also play Lindsay’s mother in a movie that will spin out of the book and thus, the has-been will become once more.

At the home front, Peter revamps the household getting it more organized than it has ever been under Julia’s command. He enlists in every activity imaginable and gets along with other mothers whom Julia was never able to. The household is running smoother and better and this fact digs deep inside Julia who becomes jealous but soon comes to embrace her new world.

Laura Zigman infuses humour into her piece and gives the reader a glimpse into the world of publicity, publicist, the has-beens and tries to keep it as real as a fiction piece can be by dropping famous names within the fabric of her tale.