When you begin reading a piece written by Mia Freedman, you never quite know what you’ll get. And this book is no different. But perhaps that’s the beauty of her work.
As a fan and follower of Freedman’s career and writings, I knew I had to read and review Mia Culpa: Confessions from the Watercooler of Life. The Australian author and journalist brings us her third installment in the form of a novel that details a range of her life experiences into one concoction of thoughts and stories. From discussing motherhood to working life, talking to your kids about sex for the first time, and even pubic hair, nothing seems to be off-limits.
Freedman connects on many levels and this read will appeal to women spread across both Gen Y and Gen X. She offers stories about the differences between men and women, how much sex is deemed ‘enough’, why Valentine’s Day is quite possibly the worst time to be single, and her inability to finish reading self-help books.
Before I started reading Mia Culpa, I knew it had been inspired by a collection of Freedman’s Sunday Life columns. But the thing that was disappointing about this was the fact that it felt like a large part of the book revisited old columns too frequently and the material felt somewhat recycled. Or as if I had already read it, word for word. As a huge fan of this author’s work, I was craving some fresh stories touched with that true witty humour Freedman delivers so well.
That aside, the book did offer a candid and refreshingly honest view of the day-to-day workings of modern life and the challenges embedded within. The book feels more like a long conversation with the author who’s curiosity with the little things in life have been transformed into interesting topics worth discussion. For many women who engage in this read, they will feel that they can relate to Freedman’s stories even if they haven’t experienced them yet. She has an incredible ability to recognise what drives women, what we’re thinking about and the questions we’d like to ask. And she isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.
It’s also a wildly funny read and I found myself in fits of laughter multiple times as Freedman so eloquently manages to see the humour in some of the most mundane and sometimes testing daily tasks. For example, Freedman highlights the challenges of working from home with the distraction of three young children who present no form of logic or order in any given day. Freedman notes: “Allow me to be specific. In my work life, nobody vomits into my hair. Nobody flatly refuses to get dressed because ‘clothes touching my body makes me feel ITCH-YYYYYY!!’ Nobody puts my shoes in the toilet. Compared to all that, the demands of my working week follow a satisfying degree of logic and order.”
The book offers a light collection of experiences that have been peppered with Freedman’s characteristic charm, witty humour, and insatiable curiosity about the very things that make women tick.
Mia Culpa: Confessions from the Watercooler of Life (Penguin Books Australia, RRP$29.95) is out now.
