In this witty novel--originally published as Whatever Makes You
Happy--that inspired Netflix's major motion picture Otherhood, three
mothers try to save their grown sons from themselves.
Gillian, Helen, and Carol are three suburban mothers who have known each
other since their respective sons were babies, and have met in a regular
coffee group for years. These days, their sons are a bunch of
thirty-four-year-old slackers: they have no wives and no children, never
call, and seem unlikely to outgrow their post-adolescent lifestyles
anytime soon. After yet another fruitless Mother's Day, Carol has an
outlandish but irresistible idea: each woman will go drop in on her son
for an unexpected weeklong visit and find out what's really keeping him
from responsible adult life. Together, and with mixed success, the
mothers set out to whip their sons into shape.
Laugh-out-loud funny and remarkably insightful about family life,
Otherhood will appeal to parents who yearn for a closer relationship
with their adult children, and for the younger generation who seem to
want the opposite, but will never quite relinquish the hope that their
parents will swoop in and make everything better.