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Also by Ilena SIlverman:

I Married My Mother-In-Law, January 2006
Hardcover

I MARRIED MY MOTHER-IN-LAW
By: Ilena SIlverman

In the tradition of The Bitch in the House, a provocative anthology of original essays about one of life's most complicated relationships.

Riverhead
January 2006
320 pages
ISBN: 1594489092
Hardcover
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Fiction

In-laws are the family members you inherit when you choose your spouse. They're the unavoidable human baggage attached to the person you love. It's a relationship that can be traumatic, harrowing, maddening, and hilarious-sometimes all at once.

In I Married My Mother-in-law and Other Tales of In-laws We Can't Live With-and Can't Live Without, Ilena Silverman brings together seventeen writers who plumb their individual in-law experiences for extraordinary and unexpected wisdom about this uninvited and intense relationship. We hear from a variety of writers, including Michael Chabon, who writes movingly about what he learned from his ex-wife's father; Kathryn Harrison, whose relationship with her father-in-law was more rewarding and less complicated than the one she had with her own father; Martha McPhee, who explores the role that money plays in the in-law dynamic; Susan Straight, who recounts her experience as the first white woman who married into her husband's African-American family; and Ayelet Waldman, who ponders the competition between wives and mothers for the attention of their husbands/sons.

By turns blunt and poignant, horrifying and touching, these essays are small mirrors that reflect some of the myriad aspects of this bewildering and complex relationship. Remarkable for both the quality of its prose and the scope of its emotional insight, I Married My Mother-in-law is an unforgettable anthology about an inescapable family relationship.

Contributors:

Matt Bai
Amy Bloom
Michael Chabon
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Anthony Giardina
Jonathan Goldstein
Colin Harrison
Kathryn Harrison
Barbara Jones
Tom Junod
Karen Karbo
Martha McPhee
Peter Richmond
Dani Shapiro
Darcey Steinke
Susan Straight
Ayelet Waldman

Media Buzz

Diane Rehm Show - NPR - March 16, 2006