This is a story about the year I exploded into flames. Which turns out to be more common than you’d think, among forty-something humans. Yea, we can hold it together in our thirties, with a raft of hair products and semi-tall nonfat half-caf beverages and much brisk walking to a lot of interesting appointments. Come the forties, though, cracks begin to appear. One staggers suddenly along life’s path; gourmet coffee splats; the wig slips askew. In other words, my friends, THE WHEELS COME OFF.Sandra Tsing Loh is the fiercest, funniest, and most incredibly honest and self-deprecating voice to emerge from the “mommy war” debates. In Mother on Fire, she fires away with her trademark hilarious satire of societal and personal irks large and small, including limo liberals who preach the virtues of public school but send their children to fashionable private ones, the proliferation of costly skin-care products that just don’t cut it, society’s obsession with aromatherapy, her Chinese father’s disdain for her life as an artist, and $10 Target pants (“Are they running pants, exercise pants, pajama pants?”) that are the ubiquitous Mother of Small Children uniform. Prompted by her own midlife crisis, Loh throws her frantic energy not into illicit affairs, shopping binges, or exotic trips, but into the harrowing heart of contemporary, dysfunctional L.A. life when she realizes that she can’t afford private school for her daughter, and her only alternative is her neighborhood’s public school, Guavatorina, where most of the kids speak Spanish and qualify for free lunches. In a theater-of-the-absurd-style odyssey, Mother on Fire documents Loh’s “year of living dangerously” among pompous school admissions officials, lactose-intolerant, Prius-driving parents, mafia dons of public radio, vindictive bosses, and old friends with new money as she first kisses ass—and then kicks it.From the Hardcover edition.

In a voice that is wry, disarming and totally candid, the "imaginatively twisted and fearless" (Los Angeles Times) Sandra Tsing Loh tells the moving and laugh-out-loud tale of her roller coaster ride through "the change". Loh chronicles relatable, everyday perils: raising daughters, weathering hormonal changes, and the ups and downs of a career and a relationship. She writes about an affair and the explosion of her marriage, and keeping her daughters off Facebook while managing the legal and marital hijinks of her eighty- nine-year-old father.In The Madwoman in the Volvo Loh speaks hilariously and honestly, recounting her journey through a tumultuous time of life, trying to maintain appearances during an epic hormonal—physical, emotional, mental and spiritual—change. The upbeat conclusion: it does get better.

In a voice that is wry, disarming and totally candid, the "imaginatively twisted and fearless" (Los Angeles Times) Sandra Tsing Loh tells the moving and laugh-out-loud tale of her roller coaster ride through "the change". Loh chronicles relatable, everyday perils: raising daughters, weathering hormonal changes, and the ups and downs of a career and a relationship. She writes about an affair and the explosion of her marriage, and keeping her daughters off Facebook while managing the legal and marital hijinks of her eighty- nine-year-old father.In The Madwoman in the Volvo Loh speaks hilariously and honestly, recounting her journey through a tumultuous time of life, trying to maintain appearances during an epic hormonal—physical, emotional, mental and spiritual—change. The upbeat conclusion: it does get better.

Ah, 55. Gateway to the golden years! Professional summiting. Emotional maturity. Easy surfing toward the glassy blue waters of retirement. . . . Or maybe not? Middle age, for Sandra Tsing Loh, feels more like living a disorganized 25-year-old’s life in an 85-year-old’s malfunctioning body. With raucous wit and carefree candor, Loh recounts the struggles of leaning in, staying lean, and keeping her family well-fed and financially afloat?all those burdens of running a household that still, all-too-often, fall to women.The Madwoman and the Roomba chronicles a roller coaster year for Loh, her partner, and her two teenage daughters in their ramshackle quasi-Craftsman, with a front lawn that’s more like a rectangle of compacted dirt and mice that greet her as she makes her morning coffee. Her daughters are spending more time online than off; her partner has become a Hindu, bringing in a household of monks; and she and her girlfriends are wondering over Groupon “well” drinks how they got here. Whether prematurely freaking out about her daughters’ college applications, worrying over her eccentric aging father, or overcoming the pitfalls of long-term partnership and the temptations of paired-with-cheese online goddess webinars, Loh somehow navigates the realities of what it means to be a middle-aged woman in the twenty-first century. Including a new epilogue hilariously recounting her family’s quarantine experience during the pandemic, The Madwoman and the Roomba is a “wildly funny” testament to Loh’s “brilliant wit and rock-solid resilience” (Henry Alford).

I don’t remember exactly when my formerly charming, humorous, omnipotent mother, who would swim a mile out into the ocean to get your beach ball in choppy seas, did the great recede. But she was a tide gradually butirrevocably washing out, she retreated, she receded, she drifted away, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.In ancient times, tribal women went alone to caves during menopause. Today, the 50 million menopausal women in America turn to cheery self-help books. As for Loh and her female friends, they are determined not to go quietly into their sixth decade, but instead opt for a desert festival of debauchery and half-nude stoners. Based on her acclaimed memoir of the same title that Booklist calls “hilarious, comforting and enlightening”, Loh's play is a hilarious, provocative, often moving consideration of what it is to be a woman in a society that values and reveres youth.The Mad Woman in the Volvo received its world premiere on 3 January 2016 at South Coast Repertory, California.

I don''t remember exactly when my formerly charming, humorous, omnipotent mother, who would swim a mile out into the ocean to get your beach ball in choppy seas, did the great recede. But she was a tide gradually butirrevocably washing out, she retreated, she receded, she drifted away, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.In ancient times, tribal women went alone to caves during menopause. Today, the 50 million menopausal women in America turn to cheery self-help books. As for Loh and her female friends, they are determined not to go quietly into their sixth decade, but instead opt for a desert festival of debauchery and half-nude stoners. Based on her acclaimed memoir of the same title that Booklist calls “hilarious, comforting and enlightening”, Loh''s play is a hilarious, provocative, often moving consideration of what it is to be a woman in a society that values and reveres youth.The Mad Woman in the Volvo received its world premiere on 3 January 2016 at South Coast Repertory, California.

I don''t remember exactly when my formerly charming, humorous, omnipotent mother, who would swim a mile out into the ocean to get your beach ball in choppy seas, did the great recede. But she was a tide gradually butirrevocably washing out, she retreated, she receded, she drifted away, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.In ancient times, tribal women went alone to caves during menopause. Today, the 50 million menopausal women in America turn to cheery self-help books. As for Loh and her female friends, they are determined not to go quietly into their sixth decade, but instead opt for a desert festival of debauchery and half-nude stoners. Based on her acclaimed memoir of the same title that Booklist calls “hilarious, comforting and enlightening”, Loh''s play is a hilarious, provocative, often moving consideration of what it is to be a woman in a society that values and reveres youth.The Mad Woman in the Volvo received its world premiere on 3 January 2016 at South Coast Repertory, California.

This is a story about the year I exploded into flames. Which turns out to be more common than you’d think, among forty-something humans. Yea, we can hold it together in our thirties, with a raft of hair products and semi-tall nonfat half-caf beverages and much brisk walking to a lot of interesting appointments. Come the forties, though, cracks begin to appear. One staggers suddenly along life’s path; gourmet coffee splats; the wig slips askew. In other words, my friends, THE WHEELS COME OFF.Sandra Tsing Loh is the fiercest, funniest, and most incredibly honest and self-deprecating voice to emerge from the “mommy war” debates. In Mother on Fire, she fires away with her trademark hilarious satire of societal and personal irks large and small, including limo liberals who preach the virtues of public school but send their children to fashionable private ones, the proliferation of costly skin-care products that just don’t cut it, society’s obsession with aromatherapy, her Chinese father’s disdain for her life as an artist, and $10 Target pants (“Are they running pants, exercise pants, pajama pants?”) that are the ubiquitous Mother of Small Children uniform. Prompted by her own midlife crisis, Loh throws her frantic energy not into illicit affairs, shopping binges, or exotic trips, but into the harrowing heart of contemporary, dysfunctional L.A. life when she realizes that she can’t afford private school for her daughter, and her only alternative is her neighborhood’s public school, Guavatorina, where most of the kids speak Spanish and qualify for free lunches. In a theater-of-the-absurd-style odyssey, Mother on Fire documents Loh’s “year of living dangerously” among pompous school admissions officials, lactose-intolerant, Prius-driving parents, mafia dons of public radio, vindictive bosses, and old friends with new money as she first kisses ass—and then kicks it.From the Hardcover edition.

In a voice that is wry, disarming and totally candid, the "imaginatively twisted and fearless" (Los Angeles Times) Sandra Tsing Loh tells the moving and laugh-out-loud tale of her roller coaster ride through "the change". Loh chronicles relatable, everyday perils: raising daughters, weathering hormonal changes, and the ups and downs of a career and a relationship. She writes about an affair and the explosion of her marriage, and keeping her daughters off Facebook while managing the legal and marital hijinks of her eighty- nine-year-old father.In The Madwoman in the Volvo Loh speaks hilariously and honestly, recounting her journey through a tumultuous time of life, trying to maintain appearances during an epic hormonal—physical, emotional, mental and spiritual—change. The upbeat conclusion: it does get better.

In a voice that is wry, disarming and totally candid, the "imaginatively twisted and fearless" (Los Angeles Times) Sandra Tsing Loh tells the moving and laugh-out-loud tale of her roller coaster ride through "the change". Loh chronicles relatable, everyday perils: raising daughters, weathering hormonal changes, and the ups and downs of a career and a relationship. She writes about an affair and the explosion of her marriage, and keeping her daughters off Facebook while managing the legal and marital hijinks of her eighty- nine-year-old father.In The Madwoman in the Volvo Loh speaks hilariously and honestly, recounting her journey through a tumultuous time of life, trying to maintain appearances during an epic hormonal—physical, emotional, mental and spiritual—change. The upbeat conclusion: it does get better.

Ah, 55. Gateway to the golden years! Professional summiting. Emotional maturity. Easy surfing toward the glassy blue waters of retirement. . . . Or maybe not? Middle age, for Sandra Tsing Loh, feels more like living a disorganized 25-year-old’s life in an 85-year-old’s malfunctioning body. With raucous wit and carefree candor, Loh recounts the struggles of leaning in, staying lean, and keeping her family well-fed and financially afloat?all those burdens of running a household that still, all-too-often, fall to women.The Madwoman and the Roomba chronicles a roller coaster year for Loh, her partner, and her two teenage daughters in their ramshackle quasi-Craftsman, with a front lawn that’s more like a rectangle of compacted dirt and mice that greet her as she makes her morning coffee. Her daughters are spending more time online than off; her partner has become a Hindu, bringing in a household of monks; and she and her girlfriends are wondering over Groupon “well” drinks how they got here. Whether prematurely freaking out about her daughters’ college applications, worrying over her eccentric aging father, or overcoming the pitfalls of long-term partnership and the temptations of paired-with-cheese online goddess webinars, Loh somehow navigates the realities of what it means to be a middle-aged woman in the twenty-first century. Including a new epilogue hilariously recounting her family’s quarantine experience during the pandemic, The Madwoman and the Roomba is a “wildly funny” testament to Loh’s “brilliant wit and rock-solid resilience” (Henry Alford).

I don’t remember exactly when my formerly charming, humorous, omnipotent mother, who would swim a mile out into the ocean to get your beach ball in choppy seas, did the great recede. But she was a tide gradually butirrevocably washing out, she retreated, she receded, she drifted away, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.In ancient times, tribal women went alone to caves during menopause. Today, the 50 million menopausal women in America turn to cheery self-help books. As for Loh and her female friends, they are determined not to go quietly into their sixth decade, but instead opt for a desert festival of debauchery and half-nude stoners. Based on her acclaimed memoir of the same title that Booklist calls “hilarious, comforting and enlightening”, Loh's play is a hilarious, provocative, often moving consideration of what it is to be a woman in a society that values and reveres youth.The Mad Woman in the Volvo received its world premiere on 3 January 2016 at South Coast Repertory, California.

I don''t remember exactly when my formerly charming, humorous, omnipotent mother, who would swim a mile out into the ocean to get your beach ball in choppy seas, did the great recede. But she was a tide gradually butirrevocably washing out, she retreated, she receded, she drifted away, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.In ancient times, tribal women went alone to caves during menopause. Today, the 50 million menopausal women in America turn to cheery self-help books. As for Loh and her female friends, they are determined not to go quietly into their sixth decade, but instead opt for a desert festival of debauchery and half-nude stoners. Based on her acclaimed memoir of the same title that Booklist calls “hilarious, comforting and enlightening”, Loh''s play is a hilarious, provocative, often moving consideration of what it is to be a woman in a society that values and reveres youth.The Mad Woman in the Volvo received its world premiere on 3 January 2016 at South Coast Repertory, California.

I don''t remember exactly when my formerly charming, humorous, omnipotent mother, who would swim a mile out into the ocean to get your beach ball in choppy seas, did the great recede. But she was a tide gradually butirrevocably washing out, she retreated, she receded, she drifted away, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.In ancient times, tribal women went alone to caves during menopause. Today, the 50 million menopausal women in America turn to cheery self-help books. As for Loh and her female friends, they are determined not to go quietly into their sixth decade, but instead opt for a desert festival of debauchery and half-nude stoners. Based on her acclaimed memoir of the same title that Booklist calls “hilarious, comforting and enlightening”, Loh''s play is a hilarious, provocative, often moving consideration of what it is to be a woman in a society that values and reveres youth.The Mad Woman in the Volvo received its world premiere on 3 January 2016 at South Coast Repertory, California.