In this remarkable novel, Joan Silber pegs the confusion and complexity of an era, a place, a marriage, and, above all, motherhood as she brilliantly traces the arc of one woman's life. Deeply felt, funny, and profoundly resonant, Household Words is simply an extraordinary book, with a heroine as compelling and mysterious as Flaubert's Emma Bovary.--Kate Walbert, author of She Was Like That
Examines an entire life with such shimmering detail that we sense the texture of the protagonists as deeply as we feel our own...A novel full of dignity and humanity.-- "New York Times Book Review"
A brave, wise, quite nearly heart-breaking book.-- "Ms."
I began reading [Household Words] and then gave up everything else--work, meals, walks--until I was finished and I emerged into the sunlight, dazed.--Mona Simpson, from the introduction