New Book: One Big Happy Family

Rebecca Walker (yes that one — the estranged daughter of Alice Walker, the one Time called one of America's most influential young leaders circa 1995) has a new book being released today: One Big Happy Family: 18 Writers Talk About Polyamory, Open Adoption, Mixed Marriage, Househusbandry, Single Motherhood, and Other Realities of Truly Modern Love. The poly chapter is written by Jenny Block.

I find it interesting that of all the situations listed in the subtitle, Walker (or her publisher) apparently thought polyamory was the most arresting and put it first, even though it's probably the least common.

And it does warm my heart to see the word next to "One Big Happy Family" on a book cover that will be looking out at people from shelves everywhere.

Here's a review of the book in ColorsNW, "the premier diversity resource" of the Pacific Northwest.

And here's a review in the venerable lefty magazine In These Times, which has this to say about Jenny's chapter:

The anthology begins with what some may consider the book’s most radical piece, Jenny Block’s “And Then We Were Poly.” Instead of Block approaching her polyamorous lifestyle as one on the fringe, she normalizes her relationships with her husband and girlfriend by pointing out the many ways in which they mimic monogamous couplings, addressing the questions she has no doubt been asked numerous times: How did you decide to be polyamorous? Does your husband get jealous of your girlfriend? How do you explain your relationships to your daughter?

Block doesn’t get bogged down in the different types of poly arrangements, and she’s not proselytizing, either. She simply speaks her piece and lets the reader sort out the rest.

The need to give priority to open communication and honesty — with one’s self and others — is a recurring theme throughout the book....

Incidentally: Jenny's own book, Open: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage, which was published in hardback last June, comes out in paperback March 1st.

And the expanded second edition of The Ethical Slut is finally due out from Ten Speed Press in March or April.

Updates: Nice review in the Dallas Morning News (March 3, 2009). The book got panned in the Honolulu Weekly (February 25, 2009).

Listen to a radio interview with Rebecca Walker on New Hampshire Public Radio (March 12, 2009). She has nice things to say about Jenny's sensitivity to how her open marriage may eventually affect her young daughter's desire for family normalcy.

Another review.

[Permalink]