The Interruption of Everything Book Review

In this book a 44 year-old woman, Marilyn Grimes, is in the middle of total chaos in her life. She is having hot flashes and other general discontent pre-menopausal signs which her friends are positive she's going through menopause early but a trip to the doctors office reveals that she's pregnant!

Now is not a great time to be pregnant as her three children are all grown up and out of the house; she has a meddlesome, live-in mother-in-law who decides to run off to Las Vegas to get married to a new senior citizen sweetheart; her mother has Alzheimer's that has gone "unnoticed" for far too long and it's causing harmful problems for everyone; her foster sister is into drugs and alcohol and just when she starts to clean up she gets hit by a drunk driver and gets killed leaving her two small children in the care of Marilyn; her husband decides he's bored with life and needs some changes including new clothes, new cologne, a new motorcycle and a younger trendy blonde to keep him company; her daughter announces that she's pregnant and is moving to London with her current boyfriend; and she has just recently been accepted into an art school to get her degree and chase after some long lost dreams.

Even when her life is chaos, Marilyn has always been there for others but now she wants to think about herself. She changes her hair, starts a work-out program, looks into starting her own business, applies to school, and tries to evaluate her marriage. With the help of her two best friends, Bunny and Pauline, she is determined to make it through everything while staying strong and to focus on herself more in the very near future.

In order for Marilyn to successfully make it into the future and achieve her dreams she should use all five of the management functions; Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, and Controlling.

The Planning Function is mainly concerned with how the decisions made today will impact tomorrow. Marilyn should have a clear vision, a nonspecific directional and motivational guidance, of how she wants her life to go. One part of that vision is she is thinking about opening her own business with all her artwork in it. She should also have realistic and reachable goals, such as going back to school to get her degree for her fabulous artistic ability or trying to get her mother into a good home for people with Alzheimer's.

The Organizing Function is establishing an internal organizational structure. This could be applied to a few different aspects in Marilyn's life. She needs at least one for home and one for work. There needs to be a clear understanding of who has to do what jobs or chores and who has the ultimate authority in all situations. Since she has to take care of her sister's children now and the children have never had any structure in their lives, this is very crucial that they know who is in charge. Giving them daily chores will also help them to know their place in this new family and give them a sense of purpose.

The Staffing Function is getting the people you need to support you around you.