At Wit's End

This book was originally published in the 1960s and my mom received a copy as a Christmas present a few years after that. I ended up swiping her copy and reading it many times, not so much because I understood all the humor at age 8 - I got some of it OK, but I remember distinctly asking my mom to explain to me certain jokes and tell me why they were funny. Mom would just sort of groan and shake her head and tell me I shouldn't be reading such a grownup book that I was too young to appreciate. But, I kept reading it anyway because Erma quite simply had a magical knack for putting funny scenes and sentences together. It was like reading an adult version of Dr. Seuss. I'll never forget my favorite part of "At Wit's End" as a child, which was the description of how, the minute Mom gets on the telephone, "the children swing into action like a highly organized army on maneuvers, each marching to his favorite 'No No, Burn Burn' or whatever" that culminates in all sorts of chaos with one kid in the middle of everything climbing onto the kitchen table and taking off his clothes. By the time I was in college I had read this and several other Erma books (a family friend kept giving them to my mom each Christmas so we got each new one as it hit the stands) multiple times and I not only had a better sense of what the books were about, but Erma had indelibly influenced my writing style with her zingy descriptions and metaphors. I thought of her especially when I wrote humor columns for a couple of school papers and tried to make it read as funny as her writing. I still think "At Wit's End", her first book, is one of her best ones, simply because it's so chock-full of text(assuming it still contains all the content of the original - I haven't looked at this latest edition to see if anything's been winnowed out in the re-release). After you get past about her first four books, when she was established as a reliably bestselling author, the print started getting bigger, the content started getting thinner, and the gags unfortunately started repeating and recycling. Although the subject matter of "At Wit's End" may be a little dated in parts, thougn not all (for example, kids have certainly not gotten any less annoying in 40 years and women still go on crash diets), I would not hesitate to recommend it based on the fast-paced, original, slightly self-deprecating writing style alone. It might not be for everyone and when it comes to Erma's writing style, people tend to either love it or hate it. Count me firmly in the "love" category.

This is Erma Bombeck's first book and you can see all that talent, all that material ready to make its mark on the world.But it doesn't read as a "first book" - all the stuff is there - the kids letting you know on Sunday night they need a costume for the school play - this happens in 2002 just the same as it happened in the 1970s - and of course, mom has no idea what she's supposed to do about a costume. That part is worht the price of admission alone.So find a quiet spot, maybe after the kids have gone to school and you're wondering if you relaly should have sent them since it's snowing and school will probably close early - get a cup of coffee and read about what it's really like to be a mom. Oh, and keep the radio on, too - they'll be announcing the school closings for you - and of course, the bus won't be available to pick them up;)

I used to occasionally pick up my mother's Erma Bombeck books when I was a young teenager and read some of it -- I found it funny but didn't quite understand it.I am now the stay-at-home mother of a three year old with the second baby on the way. What she writes about is as true in 2000 as it was in the 1970s. The environment may have changed -- not nearly as many stay-at-home moms, and the ones that are tend to be working from home, et cetera.But there are still husbands who decide to fix the plumbing themselves, there are still kids who want cupcakes and a costume for the school play on Sunday night, and there are still women with college educations who haven't gotten to read a book other than the Dr. Seuss series since before the kids were born.I understand now. I comprehend fully why my mother told me, when I asked as a naïve teenager what was so funny about Erma Bombeck, I'd understand later. There is no better author to make mothers feel like they're not the only person in the world that puts up with this . . . because their kids and husbands haven't noticed yet.

This was Erma Bombeck's first book, and it is hilarious! It takes her through a one-year period, with all the trials and tribulations of housewivery. She tells a great story . . . and explains who she wrote this book for! It is a marvelous pick-me-up book. Read it! "My children have an imagination straight from the pages of Frankenstein. Once they put a live hamster on my chest to wake me up in the morning. As I bolted upright, my throat muscles paralyzed by fear, they asked, "Can we have the cardboard that comes with Daddy's shirts?"