BPL Book Review: "Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives"

 

Author Mary Laura Philpott is a new discovery for me. As primarily a reader of rather lurid fiction, I honestly did not realize her book, Bomb Shelter: Love, Time and Other Explosives, was a memoir when I downloaded it to my Kindle. My disappointment was short lived -  and after the first few pages, I was hooked. 

Bomb Shelter is framed around a medical crisis that struck Philpott’s teenage son and brought home to her the terrible knowledge that, as hard as she may try, she can’t save and always protect everyone she loves. While this may sound like a dark and depressing premise it’s quite the opposite. 

Philpott’s humorous observations and general cheeriness make this book a delight. The essays in Bomb Shelter bounce around chronologically and it’s a style that can take some getting used to. The chapters are short and each one is a little jewel.

Philpott is a skilled writer who takes the reader along with her and her beloved family while they experience Covid, a new medical diagnosis, and the approach of middle age. She’s funny, empathetic, and has a wonderful outlook on life. 

Bomb Shelter is the book I didn’t know I needed at this point in my own life. Philpott and I have quite a lot in common: aging parents, college bound children, and a tendency to believe that our anxiety and worry can keep problems at bay. 

But I’m learning as Philpott has that, “There will always be threats lurking under the water where we play . . . and we will never be able to save everyone we care about. To know that and to try anyway is to be fully alive.”

Click here to check out Bomb Shelter at various BPL and other libraries in the Jefferson County Library Cooperative. 

By Mary Beth Newbill| Head of Southern History Department