95 million adults have a step relationship, according to a 2011 report. That’s 95 million unexpected experiences; 95 million unique perspectives; 95 million laughs, 95 million tears, and 95 million new families.
Blended explores stepfamilies from the inside out through the perspectives of thirty writers who know what it’s like first hand. Sometimes funny, often poignant, and always deeply personal, the stories in Blended capture the essence of stepfamilies in all of their weird and wonderful varieties. The journeys range from the first encounters between new step-relatives, to marriages, honeymoons, daily experiences, and divorces. The diverse voices in Blended reflect the realities of today’s world, in which yesterday’s ideas of family structures and types just don’t cut it anymore. Parents, children, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins: all of these relationships change when families are melded into one, and the writers of Blended help explore the truth of what these new relationships look like, and, especially, feel like. Blended offers something for everyone: laughter, wisdom, empathy, and guidance, and, above all, the knowledge that you are not alone.
I am sure that anyone who has ever been a part of a stepfamily will feel like there is finally a book that captures the essence of the stepfamily experience. A variety of points of view is key to the success of this book, as is the fact that the contributors are each skilled and seasoned writers.
The courage to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth is what you will find in these pages. I especially enjoyed the back-to-back essays by married writers Kerry Cohen and James Bernard Frost. And any writer would admire the brave self-disclosure in Jessica Page Morrell’s essay. But it was Samantha Waltz’s opening essay that really struck a chord with me. She talked about the naiveté of the new stepparent and the way things don’t always turn out the way you’d expected, but somehow they still turn out.
Here’s an excerpt from Waltz’s essay that I particularly appreciated. There is no doubt in my mind that readers will enjoy the quality of writing and insights in this book, whether they are part of a stepfamily or not.
A stepparent can also become the target of a stepchild’s displaced anger with a mother or father. Unfair? Of course. A difficulty that can be overcome? Sometimes, but not always. The stepparent has usually done nothing except stand in the line of fire.
And then there is the power of the mythology about evil stepmothers and wicked stepfathers that has existed since before the Brothers Grimm. Family problems feel clammy on stepparents’ skin and they aren’t sure what they’ve done wrong or how to proceed, but they must somehow prove themselves the good guy over and over…
If you have read Blended: Writers on the Stepfamily Experience
Happy summer reading, everyone!