Rumaan AlamsThat Kind of Motherbegins in childbirth.
Motherisnt big on plot or surprise.
It thrills in its attention to nuance, its construction of a full, flawed, loving heroine.
Credit: Henry Holt and Co.; Ecco
Alams generous rendering rings authentic.
Its partly because Alam knows when to gracefully drive in the knife.
Hes wry, but never cruel confident enough to pinpoint lifes ugliness while keeping hope alive.
What does this woman want?
In urgent, first-person prose, Heti contrasts societal expectation with personal desire.
Motherhoodconsiders its titular topic terrifyingly undefinable, an array of singular experiences.
For Sheila, its about being a writer: whether to create life at the expense of creating art.
She is an incisive speaker, almost all-seeing a conflicted, humane voice for women in similar predicaments.
Sheila asks midway through the book, What to do about this tremulous feeling inside?
OverMotherhoods 250-plus pages, shell ask the same thing again, in dozens of variations.
Motherhoodis a starkly intimate recital of waiting and questioning, while the world indifferently passes by.
As psychological inquiry, its undeniably effective.
But itd be too easy, too limiting, to say that Hetis literary effort is unsuccessful.
To the contrary: Frustration and ambiguity are rooted in the books very argument.
That Kind of Mother:A-Motherhood:B
