What It's Like to Live Now

Forty-something Maran has been, among other things, a political activist, labor leader, freelance journalist, copywriter, wife, cohabitor with a longtime female lover and mother. Here she turns her personal history into an absorbing meditation on the joys and frustrations of modern life. Often reading like a good novel, her book is filled with detailed explorations of the significant moments of daily life and is primarily concerned with untangling the complex dynamics of relationships. Intensely personal, the book still delivers on its promise of a more generalized account of modern life. Maran's rigorous self-scrutiny, painstaking analysis of the important decisions she has made and lyrical accounts of various epiphanies and connections invite readers to reflect upon their own choices, desires and aspirations. (Mar.)