It’s All Relative: at Kirkus Reviews Blog

Memorial Day Weekend starts today, especially if you’re in our local school district, where kids have the day off. The kick-off of summer this weekend means more than just barbecues and kids draped around the house all day telling you they’re bored. For many of us, it means spending time with family and extended family. Two days with your husband and kids in the car so that you can spend a week sleeping on a leaky air-mattress at your in-laws’ house make for some awfully memorable times—emphasis on awfully. And yet, there’s something in the telling and retelling of these memories that can make even the worst moments shine with humor.

Wade Rouse’s new memoir, It’s All Relative, takes a look at that ties that bind us together with both our families of origin and the families we form ourselves as adults. What I loved most about this book, aside from the sheer joy some of his stories brought me (Wade Rouse is a very funny man), was his recognition of the love and support that underlies a lot of family wackiness. As Rouse put it in his author’s note, “To spend a holiday with family, especially mine…is a lot like self-catheterization: it’s an experience that may cause extreme pain, something you may not always wish to revisit, but one that you’ll never forget.”

For more of my reaction to Wade Rouse’s humorous and loving take on the holidays, please read my review at the Kirkus Reviews blog and please let me know what you think by commenting over there!

Elizabeth will soon be spending two days in a car with 3 teens squished in the back seat, and then 10 days with her in-laws. Wish her luck and read all about it at her blog Planet Nomad.