As Good as I Could Be
A Memoir of Raising Wonderful Children in Difficult Times
By Susan Cheever
(Washington Square Press, Paperback, 9780671034986, 192pp.)
Publication Date: April 30, 2002
Other Editions of This Title: Google eBook
Categories: General, Parenting - General, Parenting - Motherhood
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Having children transforms us -- through the amazing power of our love for them and theirs for us, through the anger they can provoke, and because being good parents means we must accept that we are no longer children. In As Good as I Could Be, bestselling author Susan Cheever chronicles with passion and courage her own imperfect transformation, offering inspiration for other parents doing the best they can.
By relating the trials and triumphs of raising a daughter and a son Cheever illuminates some basic truths learned along the way: a family should not be a democracy; teaching your children to celebrate their mistakes helps them forgive yours; and a damaged childhood is not a guarantor of bad parenting. With unflinching honesty, Cheever tackles tantrums, divorce, eating disorders, and alcoholism, celebrating how she and her kids have weathered all this -- and more -- with love and respect intact.
Susan Cheever is the bestselling author of thirteen previous books, including five novels and the memoirs Note Found in a Bottle and Home Before Dark. Her work has been nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Boston Globe Winship Medal. She is a Guggenheim Fellow, a member of the Corporation of Yaddo, and a member of the Author's Guild Council. She teaches in the Bennington College M.F.A. program. She lives in New York City with her family.
Philadelphia Inquirer It is Cheever's ability to dive suddenly from the surface to the deeper places of the soul.
Los Angles Herald Examiner Out of the pain of real life, Susan Cheever has created a document that is ultimately a paean to family love.
The New York Times Book Review Cheever's writing has true resonance.
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