How to Party with an Infant

June 27, 2016
In her funny and sensitive fourth novel, Hemmings (The Descendants) explores the intersection of personhood and parenthood. Mele Bart is a single mother in San Francisco navigating the world of potty-training specialists, elite preschools, playdate etiquette, and nanny envy. To top it all off, she is contemplating attending the wedding of the father of her child, the man who left her when she told him she was pregnant. After multiple failed attempts at seeming like another perfect privileged mother, Mele finds refuge among the other misfit parents in her daughter’s playgroup—Annie, Barrett, Georgia, and Henry. With their encouragement, she decides to revisit her dream of becoming an author and enters a cookbook-writing contest sponsored by the San Francisco Mother’s Club. Interspersing recipes inspired by her own life with recipes inspired by the other parents in her group, all of whom are dealing with feelings of inadequacy, Mele devises a cookbook that is equal parts introspection and sharp observation. Mele’s candor, her friends’ stories, and some hilariously cringe-worthy interjections from the Mother’s Club online message board come together in a layered narrative that is both ruthless and empathetic, satirical and sincere. Agent: David Forrer, Inkwell Management.

June 1, 2016
From Hemmings (Juniors, 2015, etc.), a potato-chip-thin comedy about a single mother in San Francisco hoping to win a cookbook competition.Thirtyish recipe blogger Mele is a struggling (with help from rich parents in Hawaii) but adoring single mom to 2-year-old Ellie. When she was pregnant, Mele's boyfriend, Bobby, dumped her for a woman he calls "the love of his life," and he's finally marrying her in three weeks. Bobby wants Ellie to be the flower girl; Mele agrees but then obsesses about attending the wedding herself. Meanwhile, she enters a cookbook competition sponsored by the San Francisco Mother's Club. If such an organization actually exists, no one would want to join it after reading Mele's description of her horrible experiences with snobby members or the obnoxious online postings by monster-moms which are sprinkled throughout. Hemmings structures the novel as Mele's answers to a questionnaire that competition entrants must fill out. Mele turns for inspiration to her own makeshift parent group that gathers at the unfashionable Panhandle playground, creating recipes inspired by stories from each member. Financially strapped mother-of-three Georgia worries about her teenage son, Chris, until they connect over In-N-Out burgers. Punkish, highly educated graphic artist Annie lets the goody-goody babysitter she shares with a monster-mom intimidate her but gets revenge with a special brownie. (Annie's kitchen skills, equal to Mele's, create a bit of sloppy plot redundancy.) Anxious realtor Barrett is aghast when her newly popular middle school son throws a "hood party" based on ugly racial and sexual attitudes. And then there is rich, handsome, sensitive Henry, whose wife is having an affair and whose friendship with Mele may be edging toward something more. From the plucky heroine whose life is not very hard to the easy potshots at stereotypical monster-moms, this novel is so contrived it's hard to believe it comes from the same author as the emotionally wrenchingThe Descendents (2007).

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July 1, 2016
Using the San Francisco Mommy's Club as her clearinghouse, single parent Mele searches for a playgroup for her daughter, Elle. She wants to find other parents like herself: young, hip, edgy but grounded; not the label-lording, thigh-gap-obsessed, organic-vegan-non-GMO crowd she is matched with. And then, in one of the city's less desirable parks, she finds her tribe: Annie, Georgia, Bartlett, and Henry. They help Mele cope with the fact that her ex, Elle's father, is getting married, that he had, in fact, been engaged while dating Mele, and that he wants Elle to be the flower girl. So she spends her playdates obsessing about unfairness and completing the questionnaire to enter the SFMC's cookbook competition, profiling her pals and pairing recipes with their personal tales of woe. This is satire with soul. Hemmings (The Possibilities, 2014) skewers the cottage industries that helicopter motherhood has fostered, while plaintively celebrating the basic joys and frustrations all parents experience. Whip-smart, sharp-witted, and downright brave, Hemmings' novel of modern parenting is sleek, sly, and sublime.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

August 1, 2016

For single mother Mele, who's navigating the mommy culture of San Francisco, a cookbook contest sponsored by her mothers' club is the jumping-off point for her amusing accounts of her own experiences and those of the other parents in her play group. Earthy Georgia is having trouble letting her toddler grow up while trying desperately to connect with her teenage son. Alternative, edgy Annie feels inadequate in the eyes of her straitlaced babysitter. Barrett is floored and mystified by her adolescent son's sudden popularity. An ongoing flirtation with Henry, the one man in the group, who is having marital problems, helps Mele cope with the struggles of single parenting and the pain of her betrayal by her daughter's father. To varying degrees, the parents in Mele's group struggle with "fitting in," demonstrating that issues such as popularity, cliques, and fulfilling others' expectations extend well into adulthood. VERDICT Hemmings (The Descendants) effectively captures the judgmental, overly prescribed nature of today's parenting assumptions. Readers who are parents will relate, while those who are not will feel relieved. The book's format as a questionnaire accompanying Mele's cookbook application is somewhat artificial but doesn't interfere too much with the storytelling. [See Prepub Alert, 2/29/16.]--Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2016

If you loved the New York Times best-selling The Descendants, you'll be eager to check out Hemmings's latest, which features a free-spirited single mother in San Francisco who manages to survive the Mommy Wars and even find love. Two years ago, when Mele Bart told boyfriend Bobby that she was pregnant, he explained that he was, quite literally, otherwise engaged. Now Bobby wants little Ellie to be flower girl at his wedding, and Mele decides she must forge ahead and joins the San Francisco Mommy Club. She also enters its cookbook-writing contest and finds inspiration with her newfound friends and the recipes she devises.

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.