#5 [2023/CBR15] Bomb Shelter by Mary Laura Philpott

Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives (2022) by Mary Laura Philpot was another book I found on NPR's List. I got it as an audiobook from my library as something to read on my commute, and I definitely enjoyed it. Philpott is a good writer and tells engaging stories about her life. She is relatable, funny, and likeable. I appreciated her generally optimistic outlook on life as well as her yearning for things to stay just as they are.

However, I did come into this book under false pretenses after reading the blog on NPR's website: 

Bomb Shelter is a memoir of a mother’s experience after finding her son unconscious on the bathroom floor in the middle of the night. It’s a book that tugs at your heartstrings in all the right ways. In a series of essays, Mary Laura Philpott expertly weaves together comical stories about parenthood with ones about heavier themes: life, death and what we can and can’t do to protect the ones we love.

Now, I may have jumped to conclusions, but it seemed to me that I would be reading a book about a mother's grief after the death of her son. It sounded pretty dark. But I'd just found out that my close friend has terminal cancer, so a sad, dark book seemed pretty fitting. Spoilers? Her son doesn't die. The book begins with the author and her husband finding their son at 4 a.m. having a seizure in the bathroom. It was a terrifying and formative experience, but it was not fatal. Although her son and the rest of the family had to adjust to a diagnosis of epilepsy, her son seemed to be doing quite well at the end of the book. It took me a little while to figure out that her son was safe, so it might be a little less stressful if you read the book knowing that in the beginning.

Actually, health is a recurring theme in this book. It begins with her son having a seizure. But she also discusses her husbands health condition that changed his personality before they figured out what was going on. In addition, Philpott herself had some heart/cholesterol (if I'm remembering right) issues, where she really had to watch what she ate. She said following the diet was so difficult, she just started eating handfuls of Cheerios. This made me laugh because after my father's heart attack, he was confounded by the diet recommendations and was only eating dry Grape Nuts--until my Mom got into vegan cooking and helped him out. In fact, Philpott discusses her father's heart attack as well.

Philpott has two children and one constant was her yearning for things to stay the same. Facing their last Christmas and last summer break as an "intact" family before her son goes off to college, she's both anxious and excited about change. In addition, she realizes how much she worries about her family, thinking about everything that can go wrong. She feels anxious about what's coming up in the future and thinks that if she stays on the alert, she can somehow protect them from all the bad things coming. I am constantly thinking of worst-case scenarios, so I could deeply relate to this.

I had not read or heard of Philpott before, but I found this book interesting, funny, and sweet.