cover image I Married My Mother-in-Law: And Other Tales of In-Laws We Can't Live With—and Can't Live Without

I Married My Mother-in-Law: And Other Tales of In-Laws We Can't Live With—and Can't Live Without

, . . Riverhead, $23.95 (312pp) ISBN 978-1-59448-909-9

In spite of its funny title and occasional humor, this anthology of in-law stories is quite serious. For every gleeful in-law basher (e.g., Ayelet Waldman, acknowledging what a bad mother-in-law she intends to be; and Amy Bloom, cheerfully explaining why she hates her partner's parents), there's a strong representation of in-law lovers. There's Martha McPhee, who wishes hers hadn't died before she'd known them; Peter Richmond, who came to know his wife better by knowing her mother; and Barbara Jones, who realized her tyrannical father-in-law regretted his poor parenting and was actually a devoted grandfather. For many, having in-laws from another culture—Jewish, Japanese, African-American—is unexpectedly rewarding. In-laws often don't respect boundaries, but sometimes they're beloved precisely because they're emotional and overinvolved—people can be attracted to the parents they never had. Indeed, some in-laws become dear in spite of the trouble they cause, as in Colin Harrison's luminous account of caring for wife Kathryn's grandmother. While there's a lot of death in this collection—people seem to experience in-laws mostly in their passing—there's wit, wisdom and great writing, too. (Jan.)