About the Author

Erma Bombeck was America's favorite humorist at the time of her death in 1996. Ten of her 13 books, including Forever, Erma, appeared on the New York Times bestseller list. She claimed her first fiction writing was the weather forecast in the Dayton Herald. Her favorite food was pasta, and her hobby was dust.

Reviews

As always Bombeck fans will welcome her latest book and there will be no disappointment. This time, she has emphasized the grown familya blend of generations in which the parents visit their son's first apartment and find it furnished with a card table, four folding chairs, two cereal bowls, three spoons, a phone with a 50-foot cord, and a $4000 stereo. Looking back on the ups and downs of 30 years of motherhood, she sometimes envies Jane Goodall, Vanna White, Charles Kuralt, and even the statue of Justice, the latter because she always wears a blindfold when she's near a scale. A mix of nostalgia, humor, and a touch of pathos, Family should appeal to anyone who has ever been a parent, a child, or both. Highly recommended. Ken Phifer, Montgomery Cty. P.L. & Montgomery Coll. Lib., Rockville, Md

Syndicated columnist and bestselling author (Motherhood: The Second Oldest Profession Bombeck here takes a look at the family grown and comes up with characteristically incisive, irreverent and pertinent wisdom. Her three children, now adults, and herself at the age where ``you look wonderful,'' she provokes thought about the shifting family. Intergenerational relationshipsBombeck's with her parents; hers with her childrenand the amorphous family constellations of the '80s are explored by a master of the art of domesticity. Adult children who return to the empty nest, technology that needs to be mastered in kitchen and family room are grist for Bombeck's ever-ready mill. ``Family is a perennial that comes up year after year'' demonstrates matriarch Bombeck. First serial to Redbook; author tour. (September 28)