THE MOTHER KNOT

by Jane Lazarre ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1976

Jane Lazarre has tried to write a book that will expose ""the great motherhood lie""--""the lie, gilt-edged and pearly, shiny as tinsel hanging on a sweet-smelling spruce""--by recounting her own explosively emotional, intense and chaotic experiences between that horrible day she gave birth to a son (""a steel rod pushing apart your insides,"" ""green vomit,"" coming to orgasm while being shaved), and the time, three years later, when she began to cope with her feelings of inadequacy and unfemininity, her resentment of her husband and frequent hatred of her little boy. One often finds her ""like a swimmer who is caught with a cramp equally far from the raft and shore, floundering""; a few pages later, she will reveal that her sexuality was ""dripping blood. . . swirling madly, unreachable, involved only with myself."" Her book is gushingly personal, wracking, miserable, crisis-ridden and righteously indignant about the impositions of being a mother, a wife, a daughter, an older sister, a student and a wage-earner. How can such unfocused anger be of any real practical use, never mind comfort, to other women in their decision to have, or not to have, a baby of their own?

Pub Date: March 1, 1976

ISBN: 0822320398

Page Count: -

Publisher: McGraw-Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION