Thoughtful, literary-minded musings on motherhood, art, and the frequent intersection of the two.
A series of essays that combine musings on motherhood with literary and film theory.
In this collection, Hagood (Creative Writing/Fordham Univ.; Making Maxine’s Baby, 2015, etc.) blends her academic interest in women’s creative works with her personal experience as the mother of two children. The book’s structure borrows from academia, dividing the essays into sections with titles such as “Research Proposal,” “Methodology,” and “Literature Review.” The essays are short—few are longer than a page—but introspective. The author’s focus is on understanding her place in the world, and she often finds her answers in metaphor: “I was obsessed with mixed genre art, and had now become it. What could be more of a mixed genre than a woman with a mini-woman growing inside her?” References to a variety of artists and theorists appear throughout, from philosophers Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida to film directors Sarah Polley and Jean Cocteau. The essays address such topics as maternal ambivalence (“My emotional center wanted nothing more than to have a second kid and my mental center wanted nothing more than to have my emotional center committed”), Hagood’s writing style (“I want to show you not the explosion but the mushroom cloud”), and her literary ambitions (“If only I could do for motherhood and womanhood what James Joyce did for walking around the city and taking a crap”). They’re full of the minutiae of the author’s thoughts, and this self-focus may exhaust readers at times. At the same time, though, this intensely personal aspect is one of the book’s greatest strengths; the author wisely doesn’t try to draw universal conclusions about motherhood or femininity based on her own limited experience, which allows readers to interpret and apply her thoughts as they see fit. Her well-developed, imagery-laden prose makes the book an enjoyable read, and the essays’ brevity makes them suitable for bingeing, if desired.
Thoughtful, literary-minded musings on motherhood, art, and the frequent intersection of the two.Pub Date: March 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-934909-58-4
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Hanging Loose Press
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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