Reviews
The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem by Julie Phillips
brogan7's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
"The mind-baby problem" of the subtitle--what's that? It's a funny phrase but what this book is about is the tensions between motherhood and creativity, between scripted lives for women and the creative life they wish to lead...Doris Lessing, Adrienne Rich, Ursula LeGuin, Audre Lorde, AS Byatt, Alice Walker, Angela Carter, the greats, truly the greats!! This book tells you the lives of these women and the gritty details and the stories of their books' creation.... Truly inspiring and moving from writer to writer (plus one visual artist, Alice Neel) quickly enough that it's impossible to get bored.
The style is a little academic (when she mentions in the last chapter that she is finishing the book in pandemic times I literally flipped to the copyright page thinking "really?!"--I thought it was older, because of the style). The chapter on AS Byatt is so fast it feels truncated, incomplete. (Lorna Sage, Margaret Drabble, and AS Byatt get 6 pages all together, which feels too quick and too disjointed.). But aside from this small flaw, the book is brilliant.
How does the genius of women occur? How do women tangle their lives with artistic creation and with children and how can we not just love what they make and praise the awesomeness of women writing the messy, the creative, the hoped-for, the desired, the heartbreak, the journey of life and learning? Embrace, embrace, this herstory is so well done.
The style is a little academic (when she mentions in the last chapter that she is finishing the book in pandemic times I literally flipped to the copyright page thinking "really?!"--I thought it was older, because of the style). The chapter on AS Byatt is so fast it feels truncated, incomplete. (Lorna Sage, Margaret Drabble, and AS Byatt get 6 pages all together, which feels too quick and too disjointed.). But aside from this small flaw, the book is brilliant.
How does the genius of women occur? How do women tangle their lives with artistic creation and with children and how can we not just love what they make and praise the awesomeness of women writing the messy, the creative, the hoped-for, the desired, the heartbreak, the journey of life and learning? Embrace, embrace, this herstory is so well done.
teatiger's review
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
mohawkm's review
challenging
informative
inspiring
5.0
A surprising reveal of several women authors and artists and their experiences and feelings about motherhood. While others have pointed out it is sad how societal constraints and restrictive laws made things much too hard on many of these women, the refreshing part here is how great a lot of these women's partners were - examples we rarely hear of where the (usually men) step up, fully parent, help make space for their spouse's creative work. Based on this book, I have new respect for both Ursula K. Le Guin and her husband, which was the standout section for me in this book.
abpicciotto's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
ldhazell's review
3.0
This wasn't the right time for me to read this. I didn't need motivation to create and wasn't inspired by the historical retellings of other motherhoods.