SEPARATION ANXIETY

Courtney Patterson's lively delivery hits all the right tones of both humor and melancholy in this charming story of a 50-year-old woman who is trying to cope with too much change. Her marriage is failing, her teenage son is pulling away, and her best friend has cancer. She is floundering until she finds her long-discarded baby sling, and, on a whim, puts it on and places the family dog inside. Patterson's performance of what happens after Judy decides to wear the dog full-time nicely balances the audiobook's sly digs at aspects of contemporary society, like influencers and clickbait Web articles, and its focus on deeper issues, like isolation and dwindling finances. Listeners will feel Judy's all too familiar pain while laughing at how she handles everything life throws her way. C.B.L. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2020]