“‘The feminists lied,’ she tells me. ‘They said we could do everything / we wanted.’ ‘Anything,’ I correct her.” A book-length narrative in poems, The Familiar explores female mid-life existential crisis through two characters: the Ordinary Self and the Extraordinary Self. A true homebody, satisfied with routine and the comforts of domesticity, the Ordinary Self wakes one day to find that while she’s been sleeping—for months? for years?— the Extraordinary Self has wreaked havoc in a blind, desperate attempt to accomplish something—anything—truly great. As the Ordinary Self works to reestablish harmony and order within the household, the Extraordinary Self must come to terms with her failure to meet both the ambitions of her youth and the standards that society has set for her as a mother, as a colleague, and as a spouse. Fabulist and absurdist, The Familiar features a mix of high and low language, philosophy, and pop culture while exploring the effects of second and third-wave feminism. It’s a book for anyone who’s vacillated between dreams, desires, and ambition on the one hand, and on the other a deeply ingrained need for stability and calm. It’s a book for anyone who may be approaching or going through mid-life and thinking, “Oh no. What have I done?”

About Sarah Kain Gutowski