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The Mothers, Brit Bennett, Riverhead Books, 2016, 275 pp
One day in late February, in a spree of book buying, I bought The Mothers in hardcover because it was on the Tournament of Books 2017 list and had a long wait at the library. Then I kept putting off reading it and when it fell out of the Tournament in the early rounds, I resigned it to the TBR stacks.
One day in late March, I read an astute interview with the author on The Millions blog and was so intrigued by her approach to the subject matter that I just picked up the book and started reading. The novel is essentially a look at both sides of abortion from the viewpoints of middle class African Americans in a California beach town north of San Diego.
Nadia Turner lost her mother to suicide, unexpected, unexplained. Nadia is a good girl, a good student, with aspirations. She wants out of her little community and has been accepted with a full scholarship at the University of Michigan.
But her grief over her mother and her father's distant ways of parenting send her into depression, partying, and her first sexual relationship. The minister's son at their church, Luke, who is five years older than Nadia and an injured football player whose goals in sports have been ruined, gets her pregnant.
Nadia is determined to get an abortion. Luke gets the money from his parents, but on the day of the procedure he deserts her. Further developments include new partners for both and it all gets complicated. The novel is a study in ambiguity. The main characters get what they want but not who they want.
Life is messy. Brit Bennett's writing style contains a bit more detachment than I would have liked. You are told what happens with the characters but you don't quite feel it. Still, this is a first novel about big current issues brought down to daily existence for individual human beings. I have always been pro-choice politically but pro-life personally. The Mothers showed me how it is possible to carry both in one's heart and mind. There are no simple answers but we are all working on it.
(The Mothers is available in various formats by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)
This sounds like another interesting and complicated read. As you say, there are no simple answers on such a fraught subject as abortion. It's something I can't imagine myself personally ever having chosen and yet it is a choice that ever woman in that situation should have the right to make for herself.
ReplyDeleteWe agree on that Dorothy.
DeleteI have heard great things of this book. It sounds like a good attempt to discuss a touchy topic.
ReplyDeleteYes, that is what it is!
DeleteThis sounds like a very sad and dramatic read. :)
ReplyDeleteIt was sad but not too sad. I thought it was true to life.
DeleteThere was some promise with this book, so I'll likely look to see what the author writes next. There's quite a betrayal in the story and that sort of bothered me. I wanted to like the U of M girl.
ReplyDeleteYes, the U of M girl was quite a troubled person. But I also sympathized with her need for independence and making her own decisions. Her needs conflicted, as did her mother's. There were quite a lot of different kinds of mothers in that book.
DeleteI have the book The Mothers in my TBR.... I chose a few months ago because of Bustle's American Woman Book Club as it was one of their book selection for February (????) I think....
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I have yet to read this book, but enjoy a diverse selection of books that make you think and the pro-life/pro-choice topic is a biggie!
I liked what you wrote at the end of your post: " I have always been pro-choice politically but pro-life personally. The Mothers showed me how it is possible to carry both in one's heart and mind. There are no simple answers but we are all working on it." I have the same stance/view about the pro-life/pro-choice issue. There are no simple answers for sure to this topic.
Thank you for your thoughts on this. And thanks for spending so much time at my blog today. I hope you are enjoying yourself!
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