Catastrophic Happiness, Catherine Newman
Catastrophic Happiness, Catherine Newman
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Catastrophic Happiness
Finding Joy in Childhood¿s Messy Years

Author: Catherine Newman

Narrator: Catherine Newman

Unabridged: 5 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/05/2016

Synopsis

A comic and heartwarming memoir about childhood's second act from Real Simple journalist Catherine Newman.

Much is written about a child's infancy and toddler years, which is good since children will never remember it themselves. It is ages 4-14 that make up the second act, as Catherine Newman puts it in this delightfully candid, outlandishly funny new memoir about the years that "your children will remember as childhood."

Following Newman's son and daughter as they blossom from preschoolers into teenagers, Catastrophic Happiness is about the bittersweet joy of raising children -- and the ever-evolving landscape of issues parents traverse. In a laugh out-loud, heart-wrenching, relatable voice, Newman narrates events as momentous as grief and as quietly moving as the moonlit face of a sleeping child.

From tantrums and friendship to fear and even sex, Newman's fresh take will appeal to any parent riding this same roller coaster of laughter and heartbreak.

About Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman has written numerous columns, articles, and canned-bean recipes for magazines and newspapers, and her essays have been widely anthologized. She is the author of the novel We All Want Impossible Things; the memoirs Waiting for Birdy and Catastrophic Happiness; the middle-grade novel One Mixed-Up Night; and the bestselling kids’ life-skills books How to Be a Person and What Can I Say? She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ami on April 29, 2016

I have never wished so hard to be actual friends with an author I was reading as I have with Catherine Newman. I'm convinced we'd be best pals if we could only meet. Her writing style, her pop culture references, the stories she tells about her children and their misadventures, her ability to instan......more

Goodreads review by valerie on December 06, 2022

I really enjoyed this memoir on motherhood. It’s told over the years as the author’s kids grow up and what she learns. She talks about how the little years are hard and it gets better which is what I need to hear.......more

Goodreads review by Amanda on March 14, 2023

LOVED this! As in, if you were here in front of me, I would *gush* about this book to you. Newman’s writing acknowledges just how hard the early years of parenting are, while also shining a warm, glowy light on them. She captures the joy, the fear, and the humour of being a parent perfectly; I found......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on February 07, 2019

I enjoyed this book! There were laugh-out-loud funny parts, and it was very relatable. My own children, a girl and a boy, are three years apart like the author’s. It was also a good reminder to slow down and enjoy these moments with our kids, a sentiment we hear often as parents, but still need remi......more

Goodreads review by Kim on February 20, 2020

Newman handles with humour and grace the divine bittersweet experience of raising children with the knowledge that they grow up to be their own selves, and all the unique fears and joys that come for the ride.......more

Quotes

Praise for Catastrophic Happiness

"Ultimately the most fascinating character isn't her family, but Newman herself. This is because the book's force lies not in what it tells us about parenting, but in its sensitive portrayal of the blurring of self that happens after one has children. . . For Newman, this question of where she begins and ends is less of a riddle than a Buddhist koan. Wisely, she never tries to solve it. Her goal, in parenting and in writing, is only to figure out how to love from within it."—Elissa Strauss, New York Times Book Review

"Part of what makes Ms. Newman so good is her butterfly prose, colorful and light on its feet; part of it is her marvelous ability to reassure. It's affirming for parents to see their lives reflected back at them, and in a theme-park fun house no less, with all of the dreary bits made stretchy and silly. I adore her sideways sense of humor."
—Jennifer Senior, New York Times

"In writing that comes close to poetry, Newman really does manage to capture this bittersweet side of parenting, without overemphasizing either the bitter or the sweet. It's the two together that epitomize the job of raising and loving people who are destined to grow up and leave you, and her ability to see this that makes this book so uniquely good."—Malena Watrous, San Francisco Chronicle

"This is a book about mothers and children, or really, about how the job of mothering changes a woman, inevitably, irrevocably, and sometimes uncomfortably. Newman's self-awareness is what makes the book work; it's a portrait of striving toward a perfection that never existed, while loving the imperfection that surrounds us."
—Kate Tuttle, Boston Globe

"Winsome and funny."
—People Magazine

"An intimate account about the hectic joy of raising children and embracing the silver lining of all those inevitable hair-pulling-out mom moments."—Glamour.com

"Catastrophic Happiness celebrates the absurdly lovely mess of the parenting years."
—More

"You know those taunting posts that promise to make you "feel all the feels" only to leave you annoyed and let down? This is not one of those times. Catherine Newman's new essay collection on raising her two kids will make you laugh, cry, worry with her, and wish that you could make even the messiest, hardest, most crazy-making days with your children last just a little bit longer."
—FamilyFun

"Newman's stories are specific and funny, and she writes about the gamut of emotions we feel but can't always verbalize for ourselves. (She) takes her readers along for a fascinating, yet comfortingly familiar, ride of family life."
—Kristen Kemp, Parents Magazine

"A series of essays, which masterfully combine story and reflection...Newman's observations run the gamut from deep and profound to hilarious and true. Newman has a true gift for making the reader feel intimately connected to her family. In Catastrophic Happiness Newman has trapped lightning in a jar, allowing us all to admire its dazzle. In her book's short, lovely pages she captures life as a mother, life as a human being, life in general, in all of its gorgeous, complicated grandeur."—Lindsey Mead, Brain, Child

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