When Judy Vogel attempts the "ruthless purging of possessions" recommended by a trendy book, she thinks, "I already feel invisible; why not go all the way?" A baby sling, received when 13-year-old Teddy was born, triggers melancholy over his current teenage moodiness. But maybe the sling can give her joy--if she can fill it with "something baby-like." So begins the wearing of Charlotte, the family's 20-pound sheltie. As the narrator of Separation Anxiety, the fifth novel by Laura Zigman (Animal Husbandry), Judy describes in hilarious detail Charlotte-as-accessory and her other attempts to assuage midlife angst.
Anxiety that her husband, Gary, sleeps in a basement bedroom because they can't afford to actually separate tops Judy's troubles. Defending the "warm cotton sack of dog fur" as her choice of "a harmless, nonalcoholic, nonnarcotic, noncannabinoid solution" to her stress is commendable, she muses. Judy's contract work for a website, plus Gary's gig stocking snacks for an office, doesn't keep pace with Teddy's Montessori school fees or Gary's medical cannabis needs (his anxiety is well-established). The Vogels' domestic strife is matched by ongoing drama at Teddy's school, setting the stage for what becomes a very funny yet poignant climax.
Underneath the acerbic snipping, Judy and Gary's mutual respect survives. They share a cerebral sense of humor, and despite the stated goal of divorce they join forces in touching moments--for Teddy and for their dying best friend. "It is a choice--to accept, to believe, to remain--and I am choosing all of it now," Judy thinks, in this often hilarious and thoughtfully candid novel of midlife. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, former bookseller and freelance reviewer