The book of mothers : how literature can help us reinvent modern motherhood / Carrie Mullins.

By:

Mullins, Carrie

Material type: Text

TextPublisher: New York : St. Martin's Press, 2024Edition: First editionDescription: pages cmContent type:

text

Media type:

unmediated

Carrier type:

volume

ISBN:

9781250285065 :

Subject(s):

Contents:

The real housewife of Longbourn : Pride and prejudice by Jane Austen (1813) -- Material girls : Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1857) -- Marmee is mad : Little women by Louisa May Alcott (1868) -- Natural mamas : Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery (1908) -- The cool girl has kids : The great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) -- How do we know ourselves? : To the lighthouse by Virginia Woolf (1927) -- The myth of zero risk : Passing by Nella Larsen (1929) -- Great Scott, woman! Speak out! We'vebeen emancipated! : Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell (1959) -- Performing motherhood : Play it as it lays by Joan Didion (1970) -- Who's watching the kids? : The color purple by Alice Walker (1982) -- It's funny because it's true : Heartburn by Nora Ephron(1983) -- How bad is it, really? : The handmaid's tale by Margaret Atwood (1985) -- Motherlove is a killer : Beloved by Toni Morrison (1987) -- You before me : The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (1989) -- You will become a harried mom : Harry Potter series byJ. K. Rowling (1997-2007).

Summary: "This treasure trove for book lovers explores fifteen classic novels with memorable maternal figures, and examines how our cultural notions of motherhood have been shaped by literature. Sweet, supportive, dependable, selfless. Long before she had childrenof her own, journalist Carrie Mullins knew how mothers should behave. But how? Where did these expectations come from-and, more importantly, are they serving the mothers whose lives they shape? Carrie's suspicion, later crystallized while raising two small children, was that our culture's idealization of motherhood was not only painfully limiting but harmful, leaving women to cope with impossible standards--standards rarely created by mothers themselves. To discover how we might talk about motherhood ina more realistic, nuanced, and inclusive way, Carrie turned to literature with memorable maternal figures for answers. Moving through the literary canon--from Pride and Prejudice and Little Women to The Great Gatsby, Beloved, Heartburn, and The Joy Luck Club-Carrie traces the origins of our modern mothering experience. By interrogating the influences of politics, economics, feminism, pop culture, and family life in each text, she identifies the factors that have shaped our prevailing views of motherhood,and puts these classics into conversation with the most urgent issues of the day. Who were these literary mothers, beyond their domestic responsibilities and familial demands? And what lessons do they have for us today-if we choose to listen?"-- Provided by publisher.

List(s) this item appears in: New Adult Nonfiction | New Young Adult Additions

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Adult Book	Phillipsburg Free Public Library	Adult Non-Fiction	New Books	809.93352 MUL	Not for loan		36748002556068

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"Timely and evergreen, engaging and infuriating, personal and universal--a necessary reintroduction to some of fiction's most familiar mothers." --Cecile Richards, bestselling author of Make Trouble and former president of Planned Parenthood

This treasure trove for book lovers explores fifteen classic novels with memorable maternal figures, and examines how our cultural notions of motherhood have been shaped by literature.

Sweet, supportive, dependable, selfless . Long before she had children of her own, journalist Carrie Mullins knew how mothers should behave. But how? Where did these expectations come from--and, more importantly, are they serving the mothers whose lives they shape? Carrie's suspicion, later crystallized while raising two small children, was that our culture's idealization of motherhood was not only painfully limiting but harmful, leaving women to cope with impossible standards--standards rarely created by mothers themselves.

To discover how we might talk about motherhood in a more realistic, nuanced, and inclusive way, Carrie turned to literature with memorable maternal figures for answers. Moving through the literary canon--from Pride and Prejudice and Little Women to The Great Gatsby, Beloved, Heartburn , and The Joy Luck Club --Carrie traces the origins of our modern mothering experience. By interrogating the influences of politics, economics, feminism, pop culture, and family life in each text, she identifies the factors that have shaped our prevailing views of motherhood, and puts these classics into conversation with the most urgent issues of the day. Who were these literary mothers, beyond their domestic responsibilities and familial demands? And what lessons do they have for us today--if we choose to listen?

Includes bibliographical references.

"This treasure trove for book lovers explores fifteen classic novels with memorable maternal figures, and examines how our cultural notions of motherhood have been shaped by literature. Sweet, supportive, dependable, selfless. Long before she had childrenof her own, journalist Carrie Mullins knew how mothers should behave. But how? Where did these expectations come from-and, more importantly, are they serving the mothers whose lives they shape? Carrie's suspicion, later crystallized while raising two small children, was that our culture's idealization of motherhood was not only painfully limiting but harmful, leaving women to cope with impossible standards--standards rarely created by mothers themselves. To discover how we might talk about motherhood ina more realistic, nuanced, and inclusive way, Carrie turned to literature with memorable maternal figures for answers. Moving through the literary canon--from Pride and Prejudice and Little Women to The Great Gatsby, Beloved, Heartburn, and The Joy Luck Club-Carrie traces the origins of our modern mothering experience. By interrogating the influences of politics, economics, feminism, pop culture, and family life in each text, she identifies the factors that have shaped our prevailing views of motherhood,and puts these classics into conversation with the most urgent issues of the day. Who were these literary mothers, beyond their domestic responsibilities and familial demands? And what lessons do they have for us today-if we choose to listen?"-- Provided by publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

This perceptive debut study from Mullins explores what the novels of Gustave Flaubert, Virginia Woolf, Alice Walker, and others reveal about social attitudes toward motherhood. Likening the stars of Bravo's Real Housewives franchise to Pride and Prejudice's Mrs. Bennet, Mullins argues that both are obsessed with ostentatious wealth and "believe a woman's currency is her looks." Mullins contends that while Jane Austen uses Mrs. Bennet as a foil to her daughter Elizabeth's more progressive "version of womanhood," characterized by valuing one's "intellect and happiness," the Real Housewives shows leave their stars' superficiality unexamined. Nella Larsen portrays motherhood as an unending bout of anxiety in her 1929 novel, Passing, Mullins writes, faulting Larsen for insinuating that marriage, while necessary for a woman to achieve financial security, makes wives sexually undesirable by turning them into, in the case of protagonist Irene, "overbearing, unattractive worrier." Elsewhere, Mullins opines on how the unrelenting busyness of Mrs. Weasley in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series conflates constant activity with good mothering, and how Offred's objectification by a repressive society in Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale dramatizes how antiabortion policies reduce women to their reproductive capacity. Mullins draws unexpected connections and manages the difficult task of finding fresh perspectives on much studied works of literature. The result is a discerning feminist examination of the Western canon. Agent: Laura Mazer, Wendy Sherman Assoc. (May)Correction: An earlier version of this review conflated the author with a novelist of the same name.