Synopses & Reviews
In a voice that is wry, disarming, and totally candid, Sandra Tsing Loh tells the moving and laugh-out-loud tale of her roller coaster through "the change." This is not your grandmother's menopause story. Loh chronicles utterly relatable, everyday perils: raising preteen daughters, weathering hormonal changes, and going through the ups and downs of a career and a relationship. She writes also about an affair and the explosion of her marriage, the pressures of keeping her daughters off Facebook while managing the legal and marital hijinks of her eighty-nine-year-old dad, and a despairing withdrawal to a tiny cabin where she combined wine and Ambien, paralyzing her arm into a claw. In one outrageous chapter, a hormonal Loh finds herself trekking to her preteen daughter's school to confront a ten-year-old bully half her size. In another she attempts to subsist on only zero-calorie noodles and the occasional fat-free yogurt in a hopeless effort to vanquish added midlife weight.
In The Madwoman in the Volvo Loh speaks hilariously and honestly about her life as a mother, a daughter, and an artist. She recounts her journey through a tumultuous time of life, trying to maintain appearances during an epic hormonal — and that means physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual — change. The upbeat conclusion: it does get better.
Review
"[Reading this book] I laughed maniacally, nodded in empathy, hooted, teared up, and laughed some more. And while you could make the case that with a menopausal woman, that could have happened even had I spent the time gardening, in this case I am pretty certain it was the author's doing." Mary Roach
Review
"If I had to experience the calamity that is perimenopause without Sandra Tsing Loh's wise and witty model, I'm not sure I would make it through in one piece. (My family certainly wouldn't.) Ms. Loh possesses an eviscerating insight into the perils of this often tumultuous stage of life, but more importantly, she's hilariously funny. Madwoman in the Volvo left me giggling on the couch, thrilled to be ignoring my children for the good reason of being immersed in a delicious and marvelous book." Ayelet Waldman
Review
"Loh is that rare writer who is howlingly funny on the surface and subtly brilliant just beneath. Here, she turns her eagle eye to her own midlife "crises": motherhood, marriage, men (old and young), and madness of all kinds — not least her own. Goes down like cheap wine — fast and furiously — yet at the end, instead of a hangover, you have a bold and beautiful new view of life." Cathi Hanauer, author of Gone and editor of The Bitch in the House
Synopsis
From an “imaginatively twisted and fearless” writer (Los Angeles Times), a hilarious memoir of middle age.
About the Author
Writer and performer Sandra Tsing Loh is a contributing editor to The Atlantic, host of the syndicated radio show The Loh Down on Science, and the author of five previous books. Her work has appeared in Best American Essays. In addition to having been a regular commentator on NPR's Morning Edition and PRI's This American Life, she has performed two solo shows off-Broadway. She lives in Pasadena, California.