Entertainment Weekly - May 11, 2018

56 EW.COM MAY 11, 2018

RUMAAN ALAM’STHAT KIND OF
Motherbegins in childbirth.
Nearly 10 pages are dedicated
to the big moment, in all its
beauty and agony, laced with
humor and remarkably rich in
detail. The scene is as immersive
and transporting as a Tolkien
fantasy: Alam (Rich and Pretty)
guides you into the hospital
room—every scream heard,
every push felt—and creates a
whole world, filled with life and

Be?). Her new book,Motherhood,

isn’t quite a novel—it’s an interior

monologue, stufed with hun-

dreds of binary questions about

whether or not to have a child.

The narrator (also named Sheila)

is nearing middle age, with her

peers reaching milestones that

remain, for her, very far away.

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, it’s 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 pre-

dicaments. Heti takes an indul-

gently unusual approach to

telling her story, especially as she

veers of track: a starkly intimate

recital of waiting and questioning

while the world indiferently

passes by. “What to do about this

tremulous feeling inside?” Sheila

asks midway through. Over

Motherhood’s 250-plus pages,

she’ll ask the same thing again,

in dozens of variations. It’s

redundant—but that’s where

the book’s sneaky power lies, in

a profound question that lacks an

answer: How should a mother be?

THAT KIND OF MOTHERA

MOTHERHOODB

Edited By| CLARISSA CRUZ @CLARISSANYC1

THE MOTHER LODE

Two searingly honest new novels grapple with the complexities of motherhood—and explore
how women try to hold on to their lives while creating a new one.BY DAVID CANFIELD

tension, to explore within it.

This second novel from Alam

centers on Rebecca, a poet

who’s just given birth to her first

child. When her nanny Priscilla,

a black woman with whom

she’s bonded, dies in childbirth,

Rebecca decides to adopt the

newborn and welcome Priscilla’s

adult daughter, Cheryl, into her

family. Rebecca’s eyes are soon

opened to the realities of race in

America; her quest to overcome

her privilege and thrive as a

parent sends her marriage on

a downward spiral.Motherisn’t

big on plot or surprise. It thrills

in its attention to nuance, its

construction of a full, flawed,

loving heroine. Alam’s generous

rendering rings authentic. He’s

wry but never cruel—confident

enough to pinpoint life’s ugliness

while keeping hope alive.

The same can be said of

Sheila Heti (How Should a Person

MOTHER’S Books

DAY

SPECIAL

ILLUSTRATION BYHANNA BARCZYK