Going Overboard : The Misadventures of a Military Wife [BARGAIN PRICE] (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: Spouse Club, Big Jack, Devil Cat (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Smiley, who pens the nationally syndicated column "Shore Duty," is something of an Erma Bombeck for the military-wife set. She wittily and poignantly writes about being a navy spouse left on base with two young children while her husband is on deployment ("the D-word") overseas, just as the impending war in Iraq is dominating the headlines. Raised a navy brat, Smiley is no stranger to military life, but that doesn't preclude the fear, frustration and freak-outs that often accompany her predicament. Fellow military spouses will appreciate Smiley's humorous accounts of attending Spouse Club support meetings, handling household tasks ("My one saving grace was the toilet," she writes about a broken commode in her guest room. "A mental buffer military wives can depend on is the fact that household chores continue despite all else") and simply coping with the realities of having a husband thousands of miles away who might not return. Smiley's prose is simple and straightforward, and her humor is clever, often emerging in passages when she's at her lowest. Curiously, Smiley doesn't express her views about the Iraq war, and she often ignores the conflict's realities as her personal woes take over.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Description

A former Navy brat and present-day Navy wife, Sarah Smiley knows better than anyone that weddings and funerals--even childbirth!--take a backseat to Uncle Sam. Yet when Sarah's husband, Dustin, is sent away for an unexpected deployment, what follows is a true test of strength and wit that even Sarah's list-making mother couldn't have prepared her for. Just when Sarah thinks she has it all under control, a charming doctor creates temptation that is hard to resist. Now, with one distant spouse, two children and three best friends, Sarah learns that life sometimes means going a little overboard.

Exceptionally frank and brazenly funny, this memoir of marrying young and growing up late exposes everything you never knew you didn't know about life in the military….and then some. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• ISBN-10: 0451216679
• ASIN: B000EUKR2W
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (131 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,151,486 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read Again, & Again, March 25, 2006

By	C. J. Herrero (McDonough, GA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Going Overboard: The Misadventures of a Military Wife (Hardcover)

This is one of those books that really put you in the story. I felt like I new every character in he book. I learned so much from it. This isn't a survival guide, it is a realization book. As a Navy Wife of 2 children (5 & 2), one child on the way, and a hubby that won't be back until about 7 days before my due date, this book let me know that I am not crazy.

This is a great book about learning independence. There is fine line where the individual and the couple meet. I think that this is a great book for wives who are married to a civilian husband also. Not only does it tell you about what it is like to be married to a military man but how to deal with everyday life as well. I learned how to laugh at my misfortunes while my husband is gone.

I like how the book is written in plain English. I didn't have to get out the dictionary to figure out words. She speaks straight from the heart and is completely open. It is great to see that a marriage can go through so many obsticles and make it through.

Thank you Sarah for this book. I look forward to reading it over and over and over.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars 1 star only because I can't give it less, February 20, 2007

By	Tamara J. Buchli (Yorktown, VA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Going Overboard: The Misadventures of a Military Wife (Paperback)

A ghastly book by the sadly misnamed Sarah Smiley. I have a weakness for domestic memoirs (Jean Kerr, Shirley Jackson, Erma Bombeck) and I am, myself, a military wife, so I was excited to find this book and fully expected to enjoy it.

I hated it. A lot. With the exception of books about serial killers, I don't believe I've ever read a book with a protagonist I liked less. 260 pages of whining. No empathy for anyone: poor Sarah always has it worse. Her mother (an admiral's wife) comments that deployments used to be worse back in the days before email. No, says Sarah, email is worse because there is more disappointed anticipation. ?!?

A friend suffers a miscarriage and Sarah has to be literally shamed into going to help her (Sarah doesn't like blood, you see). Nowhere in the remainder of the book is there an inkling of sympathy for this woman (also a military wife) who has had three miscarriages, the last one while her husband was deployed. It's all about Sarah (who has to babysit for the woman's older child).

Another friend's husband is sent home from the deployment and their family must relocate to California (from Florida) in a month. The reasons for this are not specified, but I can tell you that an officer isn't usually sent home early from a deployment for good behavior. Sarah's response? First, jealousy that her friend's husband is coming home; second, discontent that she (Sarah) will be losing her friend!

The worst, though, is her treatment of her husband, whom she is mad at throughout the entire book. To use one example only: Sarah's husband sends her an email -- one that would have broken my heart had my husband sent it to me -- in which he writes sadly that he will miss seeing their new baby's first smile, just as he missed seeing their older son's. Sarah's response to this? To be angry because that was the only email he sent her that day.

I finished the book only because I was hoping she would grow up! Nope, though. She was just as self-absorbed and whiney on the last page as she had been on the first. I came to Amazon and read the reviews and found several people who said something like "I don't know anything about the military, but now I have an understanding of what military wives go through." I hate the idea that people will read this tripe and think it is in any way representative of me, or of any of the fine military spouses I have known!

And this was a memoir! I can't imagine writing a book in which I acted like a spoiled brat from page 1 to page 260 and allowing it to be published with my picture on the front! Of course, Sarah doesn't think she is a spoiled brat -- oh no! Sarah pees champagne and poops gold bricks and is the white-hot center of the universe...

Once I finished it I threw the thing in the garbage. Yep, the garbage. Usually I donate books I don't want anymore to the library, but that didn't seem final enough in this case. So it's on its way to the York County Waste Treatment Facility right now. And I'm not a bit sorry!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brave look into life's journey, November 8, 2005

By	Darcele A. Jones "Darcele" (Papillion, NE) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Going Overboard: The Misadventures of a Military Wife (Hardcover)

I thought this book was a courageous book to write. The subject matter has very sensitive and personal material in it, yet through humor it relinquishes a great message for not only military spouses, but to all wives/partners whose life partner's career manages their lives. Being an Officer's wife of 8 years, and a prior enlisted dependent of 21 years, the message I took to heart was that I don't always have to be so strong. It's ok to have doubts and weaknesses; and also it's acceptable to not always have a pretense of a perfect marriage. This book seem to look at one's journey and challenge to attain personal growth and how even though freindships are essential, it's the individual person who actually has to decide to grow or not. A person's journey out reaches rank, job titles, or financial background; I believe the message has helped me in my own journey of personal growth which continues daily.