cover image The Joy of Imperfection

The Joy of Imperfection

Enid Howarth. Fairview Press, $12.95 (208pp) ISBN 978-1-57749-011-1

In 1991, Howarth and Tras published an article in the Albuquerque Journal called ""Perfect You're Not: The Adventure of Being Ordinary,"" which they decided to expand into a book. And expand it they did. As they've cast it, imperfection is a very wide net, encompassing everything from co-dependency to optimism. The thread is that life is filled with established models--daughter, son, wife, husband, worker, parent, human--and we all tend to spend a lot of time trying to fit them. In each of 24 chapters, the authors discuss one myth, the truth, illuminating fables, goals and affirmations. Howarth and Tras, who are both involved in psychodrama and have collaborated as therapists and workshop facilitators, do a good job of urging readers to break out of those molds without settling for mediocrity. The biggest problem is that, despite one chapter on relieving parents of the blame for one's less than perfect life, the authors usually do trace problems back to parents without advising parents how to do better: ""For instance a child will notice that Daddy is unsteady, has a lamp shade on his head, and smells funny... How can Mommy keep saying that nothing's wrong?"" On the other hand, how can Mommy say, ""Sorry, dear, Daddy's blotto again""? That aside, The Joy if Imperfection is basically liberating and at its best full of good humor as when the authors take a caustic look at what Snow White teaches girls: ""It pays to know the Heimlich maneuver."" and ""Good girls must cheerfully take care of all the men in their lives even if they're grumpy, sleepy, sneezy, or dopey."" (Sept.)