Author: Mary M. Mayhew

Publisher: Xlibris Corporation

Published: 2002-01-03

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1462809847

When 40-something housewife/mother, Muriel “Boo Boo” Gertrude Setzer Wilkerson Knowlton collides with middle age --a.k.a. “change” -- she clings the more stubbornly to her sacred convictions of her own inferiority, unworthiness, undesirability, and to her false pride and arrogance. But “change” persists: * Classes with the swami in New Age thought, combined with her daughter’s clairvoyance, begin to topple personal paradigms; * A new job at Great Convenience Store forces proximity to the dreaded gamut of humanity -- “Americana” at its best and worst -- which teaches that life is funny and worth is more than skin deep; * Husband Larke forms a friendship with a beautiful rival; * A mystery man -- an astrologer/ecologist/Vietnam veteran -- forces Muriel to claim her womanhood, mercilessly stripping her of false concepts, leaving her soul naked before her personal power of Being; * Danger and death force a shift of awareness and perspective, enabling Muriel to see that there is “extra” in the ordinary; that one creates one’s own reality; that it is one’s personal responsibility to be joyful, to savor the life experience with no apologies, to be Who one truly is, to love and be loved, and indeed, to relish the journey through life as a Great Adventure. Humor, pathos, a bucolic small-town setting, a believable narrative pace, a cornucopia of personalities and an endearing American family combine with some out-of-the-mainstream thought to create a unique, engaging read. The storyline is loosely constructed (typical of life) while a deeper, more comprehensive thread of meaning subtly weaves through life’s daily kaleidoscope, tying together the whole picture and building subconsciously in urgency right up to the last chapter’s WHAMMY.