redhickory's review against another edition
3.0
I found this book refreshing in its portrayal of motherhood.
It is about Johnson’s experience of becoming a mother and the impact of getting a recto-vaginal fistula as a result of the births of her two sons and the subsequent treatment she had to undergo – how this impacted her relationships and self-image.
She explores how motherhood changed her life and in particular her place in the world, as a writer, as well as her pre- and post- motherhood views on parenting.
Johnson was candid about her changing feelings about being a mother; she expressed rage, feelings of being helpless and inadequate, as well as feelings of bliss and being overcome by love and protective instincts.
“In reality I am the good mother and I am the bad mother; I am the good woman and the bad woman caught in the same net of skin.” She recognized that motherhood is usually presented through a whimsical, purely joyous filter and rejected that, for the crap it is – yeah!
She also examined the way she had to adjust her attitude to the level of control she exerts on her life and body and her struggle to do this. She called it a kind of arrogance of the young, who all seem to think negative things only happen to other people.
I found this book made me contemplate my own attitudes, which was illuminating.
I found her writing easy to digest and quite poetic at times.
It is about Johnson’s experience of becoming a mother and the impact of getting a recto-vaginal fistula as a result of the births of her two sons and the subsequent treatment she had to undergo – how this impacted her relationships and self-image.
She explores how motherhood changed her life and in particular her place in the world, as a writer, as well as her pre- and post- motherhood views on parenting.
Johnson was candid about her changing feelings about being a mother; she expressed rage, feelings of being helpless and inadequate, as well as feelings of bliss and being overcome by love and protective instincts.
“In reality I am the good mother and I am the bad mother; I am the good woman and the bad woman caught in the same net of skin.” She recognized that motherhood is usually presented through a whimsical, purely joyous filter and rejected that, for the crap it is – yeah!
She also examined the way she had to adjust her attitude to the level of control she exerts on her life and body and her struggle to do this. She called it a kind of arrogance of the young, who all seem to think negative things only happen to other people.
I found this book made me contemplate my own attitudes, which was illuminating.
I found her writing easy to digest and quite poetic at times.
brogan7's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content and Medical trauma
TW: birth trauma; the title. If you chose not to carry a surprise pregnancy to term, you must be an inferior woman?
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