LIFE’S WORK

A tell-it-like-it-is collection of short essays that cheerfully and comfortingly address the conflicts between life as a spouse and parent and life as a working person.

Belkin (Show Me a Hero, 1999, etc.) gets right to the point: “It cannot be done.” It’s impossible to be a 100% parent, a 100% worker, and a 100% human being, she writes: “So what?” Her verbal shrug is not an attempt to downplay the importance of the multiple roles that women and men assume, but to reassure all the fretful people who try to reconcile work, parenting, and relationships, plus diet and exercise, that something—maybe lots of things—have to give. Some of the pieces began in Belkin’s New York Times column, “Life’s Work,” then were updated as she followed events (the dot.com crash, September 11); some are original. The author achieves a graceful balance between personal anecdotes and reports from others (families, couples, retirees, and singles) who juggle job and life. Key chapters go to the high-powered, two-career couple who plan to lunch together often to keep their relationship meaningful. Work pressures short-circuit their lunch plans, so they quit their jobs and take a sabbatical in Bali, reassessing their priorities. Another tale reflects on a wired entrepreneur who, when he found that he and his wife were going to have a baby, planned to restructure his company, embracing parental leave, day care, and shorter hours for all his employees. Those plans fell apart with the technology downturn. Belkin also deftly discusses jet lag, filing expense reports, and pets in the office, issues not as trivial as they might seem. There’s an insightful epilogue on how little September 11 changed the pattern of work vs. life conflicts.

Written with wit and perspective, these short takes on integrating home and job will be balm for guilt-stricken parents and harried workers.