Mary Robison's Novel "Why did I Ever" - Ever Wonder What It's Like Living with ADD?

"Why did I ever" is a cleverly written novel that gets inside the head of a very smart, but very troubled and erratic woman, Monica.  Forget the name, because she only mentions it once; a quick wink while delving into the psyche and stress of a mother with rapid fire acerbic comments (many directed to herself) and a prolonged magical regard of serious issues plaguing her adult son & daughter.  Robison's (b Amer. 1949) novel is very crafty & creative with her writing style.  There's an intriguing blend of Didion's "Year of Magical Thinking," Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye," Haddon's "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night?" and Kennedy's "Confederacy of Dunces."  The  storytelling unwinds through the mind of a very intelligent, quirky outsider.  Monica is aware of her porous filter but her diatribe just flies much to our amusement and disconcertment.  "I just regret everything and using my turn signal is too much trouble.  Fuck you!  Why should you get to know where I'm going?  I don't."  She's a loving mother who intermittently reveals her son & daughter's heartbreaking ordeals.  She is often the smartest person in the room, "Bit of a wonder that my mind can house such a melange."  Being so edgy doesn't make for smooth sailing at work.  Her forlorn travails in love & friendship& oddities ingratiate or irritate (depending on the reader.)  Her only female friend is a homeless woman she calls the deaf lady.   Her male companion teaches drivers ed to teens and has little direction in life.  The genre falls somewhere in the absurdist, comic-tragedy genre.  Robison suffered from serious writer's block for years in the 90s.  During this period she scribbled fragmented thoughts on thousands of scraps of paper which evolved into "Why did I ever" which received the 2001 LA Times Book Prize.  I've nEVER read anything quite as beguiling, bothersome & brilliant.  It gets a strong recommendation from me with the caveat it's not for EVERyone.