A review by guerrillabooks
Motherhood by Sheila Heti
4.0
I was hooked from the absolute beginning. I started this book while sitting in a restaurant waiting for my burger to arrive… and remained well after my burger was finished. It was the near-constant questioning that felt so utterly familiar and I laughed at myself more than once, as though I was this woman, and then add to that the actual content of the questions themselves. They were questions of happiness, of that gross (as in large but also sometimes yucky) primordial need to find approval or validation in other/mother <—> child relations. Of freedom, of control, of desire and purpose, of ego, of creating, of art, of society, of age and expectations….
"the reason you cant find an answer, whenever you can't, is because the answer doesn't much matter, in the general course of things."
One point about all the questions - as much as I connected to the narrator's struggle with motherhood and purpose and relationships and creativity - it is interesting to note the areas of struggle that I experience in my own life that were not part of this exploration. I just think it is a good reminder that when we share a struggle with another person, it isn't going to be apples to apples. Our struggles and our questions have nefarious threads that dip into unique areas.
I was concerned that the book would end without some sense of resolution... but the ending was actually quite beautiful. I felt this sense of how life is a journey and we grow and change and we are the object of hurt while also being a source of hurt.... but with time, when we make an effort to understand, we might just might be "rewarded" with a kindness or peace of some variety?
"the reason you cant find an answer, whenever you can't, is because the answer doesn't much matter, in the general course of things."
One point about all the questions - as much as I connected to the narrator's struggle with motherhood and purpose and relationships and creativity - it is interesting to note the areas of struggle that I experience in my own life that were not part of this exploration. I just think it is a good reminder that when we share a struggle with another person, it isn't going to be apples to apples. Our struggles and our questions have nefarious threads that dip into unique areas.
I was concerned that the book would end without some sense of resolution... but the ending was actually quite beautiful. I felt this sense of how life is a journey and we grow and change and we are the object of hurt while also being a source of hurt.... but with time, when we make an effort to understand, we might just might be "rewarded" with a kindness or peace of some variety?