" " Joel Stein, columnist for and the The last person Liz Alterman expects to hear from during her Thanksgiving prep is her husband, Rich. He never calls from his job at a busy Manhattan newsroom. And he never will again, because he's just been laid off. Two months later, Liz is downsized, too. At first, Rich is enchanted with his new leisurely lifestyle. But when he's still unemployed six months later, his euphoric mood devolves into depression and despair. It falls to Liz to figure out how to support their family of five and keep up appearances in their well-to-do suburb, where even nannies drive the latest model Lexus. blends the wit of Nora Ephron's with the madcap hilarity of Maria Semple's to expose the pressure on women to put on a happy face even as their world falls apart. In Liz Alterman's gifted hands, we laugh until we cry about what happens when the bottom drops out.