Contents
Introduction
1 How Free to Be?
2 The Taste of Control
3 Taking Possession of Ourselves
4 The Power of Sex
5 Who Controls the Couple?
6 Permanent Parenthood
7 Bossing and Being Bossed
8 Victims and Survivors
9 Varieties of Surrender
10 In Control of Our Death
Last Words
Notes and Elaborations
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Index

In her remarkable national bestseller, Necessary Losses, Judith Viorst explored how we are shaped by the various losses we experience throughout our lives. Now, in her wise and perceptive new book, Imperfect Control, she shows us how our sense of self and all our important relationships are colored by our struggles over control: over wanting it and taking it, loving it and fearing it, and figuring out when the time has come to surrender it.
Writing with compassion, acute psychological insight, and a touch of her trademark humor, Viorst invites us to contemplate the limits and possibilities of our control. She shows us how our lives can be shaped by our actions and our choices. She reminds us, too, that we sometimes should choose to let go. And she encourages us to find our own best balance between power and surrender.