Spectacular. I always complain about never finding a good travel book with a female protagonist and then this just fell into my lap. I imagine this is somewhat what my life would be like if I ever decided to have children. Running away across the wilderness, not tied down to any place in particular.

Keen insight, that signature wit, but dang this book took me a long time to get through. There's no definitive arc, more a meandering from one vignette to the next. The inherent problem with that is the author has a very short amount of time to make me care about any one scene before they move on, and since I know these brief characters aren't terribly consequential to the plot, even harder. Another challenge Eggers has made for himself: kids make great protagonists when the perspective of the store is theirs, but pretty terrible supporting characters if the perspective is their mom's and there are no other adults to share the entire arc of the story. I got bored and lonely, which is perhaps kind of brilliant because that is often how stay at home moms feel being isolated and surrounded only by their children. So, neat trick, but made for a tedious read. One last thing: I grew weary and a bit angry about how many times she put her children in peril recklessly. Your midlife crisis is not your children's problem.