Book Review: The Interruption of Everything by Terry McMillan

This is a funny but oh so true book by Terry McMillan. This is the story of a woman, named Marilyn, in her mid-forties who believes that she is starting to go through "the change". Her best friends, Bunny and Paulette tell her that she is showing all the signs of menopause. She is grumpy, irritable and unhappy with her home life and she blames it all on her husband, Leon.

Unfortunately, when Marilyn goes to the doctor to confirm her suspicions of menopause, the news couldn't get any worse. The doctor informs her that she has wonderful news Marilyn is not going through menopause,,,she is PREGNANT! Marilyn is not quite as excited as the doctor. She is shocked. How can this be? She has grown children in their twenties. She can't start over again with the diapers, the midnight feedings and all the things that go along with having a baby. She has already spent the past 22 years bringing up two children and taking care of a husband.

Marilyn gets another shock when she goes to tell her husband that she is pregnant. She discovers that he is also disappointed that she is pregnant. This is when Marilyn, also, starts to notice the change in her husband's attitude about his own life and the job she thought he loved. He is also changing his appearance. He is starting to dress like their twenty year old son and if that isn't bad enough he has gone and bought a MOTORCYCLE!

In the midst of having to deal with her pregnancy, her new found worries about her husband, and her mother-in-law that lives with them, Marilyn, also, has to deal with her drug addict adopted sister, her children and her own mother who is showing signs of Alzheimer's.

Terry McMillan conveys perfectly the expectations put on so many women today. Everyone in the family, from sister to mother to husband to children depend on Marilyn to save the day.. McMillan shows how a woman has to put her own life on hold in order to keep the rest of her family going.

The book does end on a positive note with Marilyn able to see the sunshine in her own life again. That's all I will say because I don't want to ruin the ending, but believe me when I say it is a book well worth reading.

Ms McMillan deserves "kudos" for this peek into the life of a family in the middle of a "mid-life" crisis.