Ayelet Waldman

Ayelet Waldman (born December 11, 1964) is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, born in Jerusalem, and raised in Montreal and New Jersey.

She is the author of seven novels about the "part-time sleuth and full-time mother" Juliet Applebaum. The collective title of the series is "The Mommy-Track Mysteries". Waldman has said that the seventh installment in the series, "Bye-Bye, Black Sheep" (2006), is likely to be the last. [ [http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/12492.html Keeping Track of Ayelet Waldman ] ] Waldman has also published two novels of general interest, "Daughter's Keeper" (2003) and "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" (2006). A graduate of Wesleyan University (1986) and Harvard Law School (1991), Waldman spent three years working as a Federal Public Defender in the Central District of California, and in all her fiction she has drawn extensively on her legal education and career as an attorney.

"Motherlove"

Waldman's essay "Motherlove" was published in "Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About Children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race and Themselves" (ISBN 0-06-059879-4, edited by Kate Moses and Camille Peri), and reprinted in the "New York Times" under the headline "Truly, Madly, Guiltily."

The essay explores her conviction that a woman should consider her spousal relationship more important than her relationships with her children. She writes that a clear hierarchy of love is essential to a stable and healthy marriage. Waldman summarizes her ideal family dynamic: " [W] e, [husband Michael Chabon] and I, are the core of what he cherishes... the children are satellites, beloved but tangential."

Waldman posits that children who are made aware of their secondary rank in their parents' affections "are more successful, happier, live longer and have healthier lives" than those who grow up with different expectations.

After "Because I Said So" was published, mommy bloggers such as washingtonpost.com writer Leslie Morgan Steiner [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Morgan_Steiner] experienced frenzied debates over Waldman's views, including whether a woman who prioritized her husband over her children could be considered a good mother. "The Oprah Winfrey Show" invited Waldman to discuss her views on love, marriage, and motherhood. Other guests took issue with Waldman's "one-size-fits-all" prescription, arguing that it may be inappropriate for blended families or families in which abuse occurs.

Michael Chabon revisited the controversy in an interview appearing in the January 2006 issue of Pages. He suggested that criticism from the "slagosphere" is responsible for suppressing the publication of challenging and thought-provoking writing.

Personal life

Waldman married Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Chabon in 1993. Chabon has said that they critique each other's work in a "creative freeflow,"Buchwald, Laura. [http://www.randomhouse.com/boldtype/1000/chabon/interview.html "A Conversation with Michael Chabon"] , Boldtype, RandomHouse.com, 2000. Retrieved on 2007-07-28.] and in 2007, "Entertainment Weekly" declared the couple "a famous — and famously in love — writing pair, like Nick and Nora Charles with word processors and not so much booze."cite news | url = http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20037742,00.html |date = 2007-05-11 | title = The New Adventures of Michael Chabon | last = Kirschling | first = Gregory |publisher =Entertainment Weekly | accessdate = 2007-05-08] They currently live together in Berkeley, California with their four children, [cite news | url = http://www.ayeletwaldman.com/10052003_LATimes.html |date = 2003-10-05 | title = Taking on the Law: Ayelet Waldman lashes out at drug sentencing in her new novel|first = Michael J. |last = Ybarra|publisher = Los Angeles Times | accessdate = 2007-01-20] Sophie (b. 1994), Ezekiel "Zeke" Napoleon Waldman (b. 1997), Ida-Rose (b. June 1, 2001), and Abraham Wolf Waldman (b. March 31, 2003).

Waldman has said that she is bipolar, but that "the upside of being bipolar is that it makes you really productive." [ [http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/stories/12492.html Keeping Track of Ayelet Waldman ] ]

Works

"Mommy-Track" mystery novels

* "Nursery Crimes" (2000)
* "The Big Nap" (2001)
* "Playdate With Death" (2002)
* "Death Gets a Time-Out" (2003)
* "Murder Plays House" (2004)
* "The Cradle Robbers" (2005)
* "Bye-Bye, Black Sheep" (2006)

Other novels

* "Daughter's Keeper" (2003)
* "Love and Other Impossible Pursuits" (2006)

Notable Columns

* [http://www.salon.com/mwt/col/waldman/2005/03/28/gay_marriage/index.html "You're Supposed to Marry the Person You Love, Mom"]
* [http://www.salon.com/mwt/col/waldman/2006/01/09/mother_in_law/index.html "Dividing the Man from his Mother"]
* [http://www2.oprah.com/tows/booksseen/200504/tows_book_20050420_kmose_b.jhtml "Motherlove"] - reprinted from "Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About Children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race and Themselves". This column has also appeared under the title "Truly, Madly, Guiltily."

External links

* [http://ayeletwaldman.com/ Ayelet Waldman's website]
* [http://bad-mother.blogspot.com/ Ayelet Waldman's blog] - no longer updated.
* [http://dir.salon.com/topics/ayelet_waldman/ "Salon.com's" Archive of Waldman's columns]
* [http://blog.washingtonpost.com/onbalance/]

References