An often vivid portrait of a conflicted mother, although her struggle eventually becomes tedious.
Debut author Sokol offers a novel about one woman’s obsession with motherhood.
Lara Jennings James is a woman who knows what she wants. As a driven member of a public relations and marketing firm in Richmond, Virginia, Lara has devoted countless hours to her career and personal success. She and her husband, Will, seem to be the epitome of a happy, childless couple, taking trips abroad, attending an annual wine festival, and immersing themselves in their own interests. Everything seems fine—until Lara decides something is missing: “At thirty-nine years old, all Lara James wanted was a baby.” The fulfillment of her desire turns out to be much easier said than done. She has difficulties becoming pregnant, and her attempts to conceive turn costly, both financially and psychologically; she suffers miscarriages, and her contribution to the fertility industry is in excess of $250,000. And even though she projects an outward appearance of determination, she has lingering doubts: “Ambition had been her child for decades—fed, strengthened, followed. Could she both mother and succeed?” When Lara finally gets what she wants, will motherhood be all that she’d bargained for? Sokol doesn’t gloss over the details of Lara’s journey. Her first miscarriage’s aftermath, for instance, is described graphically: “Pubic hair, wet and gleaming, red and purple, clumped in curls. Between her legs was a crime scene.” The book does well at highlighting the protagonist’s hardest moments, though the overall story isn’t always a page-turner. First, the story pits Lara against her own body; then, it sets Lara against the difficulties of motherhood. The latter experience proves to be much more challenging, with endless crying, judgmental health professionals, and a great deal of attention paid to milk production. But readers know that it will end at some point—either Lara will come to terms with her situation or she won’t, but surely her infant won’t remain an infant forever. By the final pages, readers may be longing for the appearance of a toddler who can tell her distraught protagonist that it will all be over soon enough.
An often vivid portrait of a conflicted mother, although her struggle eventually becomes tedious.Pub Date: April 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5107-1832-6
Page Count: 296
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A story about survival that is heartbreakingly honest and wryly funny, perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes and Elizabeth Berg.
A woman faces a new life after surviving a plane crash in this moving story from Center (Happiness for Beginners, 2015, etc.).
Margaret Jacobsen has always been afraid of flying—which is why she’s extra hesitant to get in a plane flown by her pilot-in-training boyfriend, Chip, on Valentine’s Day. When Chip proposes in the air, Margaret has everything she’s ever wanted: an MBA, a great job lined up, and now the fiance of her dreams. But then Margaret’s biggest nightmare becomes a reality: The plane crashes. Chip walks away without a scratch while Margaret has severe burns on her neck and a spinal cord injury. Suddenly, everything about Margaret’s life has changed: Her job offer is rescinded, Chip can’t cope with her injuries, and she may never walk again. Now, Margaret has only her family to depend on—her well-meaning but controlling mother, her loving father, and her black-sheep sister, Kitty, who returns to town after years of estrangement. As her family members try in their own ways to motivate Margaret, she also has to get through physical therapy with Ian, the world’s grumpiest Scottish physical therapist. He has a prickly exterior, but Margaret slowly begins to realize that there may be more to him than she initially thought. A story that could be either uncompromisingly bleak or unbearably saccharine is neither in Center’s hands; Margaret faces her challenges with a sense of humor that feels natural. She has days when the reality of her changed life hits her and she can’t get out of bed, and she has moments where she and Kitty laugh so hard they cry. What she ultimately learns is that while her life may be much different than she expected and she may never be fully healed, as Ian puts it, “It’s the trying that heals you.” Margaret learns to take control of her own life in the wake of loss and change, trying to form a life she wants instead of a life everyone else wants for her. Center’s characters, especially Margaret and Kitty, leap off the page with their unique voices, and their relationships evolve slowly and satisfyingly. Although this is largely the story of Margaret learning to make the most of her life, it’s also a touching and believable love story with plenty of romantic-comedy flourishes.
A story about survival that is heartbreakingly honest and wryly funny, perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes and Elizabeth Berg.Pub Date: May 15, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-250-14906-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: March 4, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
Adebayo’s debut marks the emergence of a fine young writer.
A couple struggles with fertility—and fidelity—as Nigeria falls apart around them.
Yejide is furious when her husband, Akin, brings Funmi, a second wife, home to their house in Ilesa. Pressured by his mother, and by the constraints of Nigerian masculinity, to conceive a son, Akin seeks a solution to their marriage’s childlessness—even if it means hurting Yejide in the process. In alternating chapters, Yejide and Akin tell a desperate story of hope and deceit, grief and forgiveness. “I simply had to get pregnant, as soon as possible, and before Funmi did,” explains Yejide. “It was the only way I could be sure I would stay in Akin’s life.” Yejide’s path to motherhood is marked by operatic tragedy, with the requisite affair and multiple deaths. Although Adebayo wields misfortune to shed light on the pressures of marriage, melodrama, at times, crowds out sympathy for the human-sized grief of her characters. Still, in the moments when Yejide confronts the fear and uncertainty of raising children with sickle cell anemia, Adebayo's writing shines. Set against a backdrop of student protests, a presidential assassination, and a military coup, Adebayo's novel captures how the turmoil of Nigerian life in the 1980s and '90s seeps into the most personal of decisions—to fight for, and protect, one’s family.
Adebayo’s debut marks the emergence of a fine young writer.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-451-49460-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: June 5, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2017
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