Stitch and Bear

A long-running Irish blog with reviews of the best restaurants in Dublin and throughout Ireland. Some wine and cocktails thrown in for good measure!

Monday, May 18, 2009

Bad Mother - Ayelet Waldman

I'm finally beginning to make an indentation into the big stack of ARC books that has accumulated over the last few months. I thought that I had read them all, only to realise one day that my postman has been diverting my post to my work address (off his own bat I may add). So when I did check my lockbox, I found another 10 books waiting.

Amongst this stack was Ayelet Waldman's memoir Bad Mother: A Chronicle of Maternal Crimes, Minor Calamities and Occiasional Moments of Grace. A graduate of Harvard Law School, Waldman is the author of a series of murder mystery novels, The Mommy-Track Mysteries. Lately, she has turned to more emotionally serious topics, and drew extensive criticism for her essay Truly Madly Guiltily, which was published in the New York Times, in which she stated that she loved her husband more than her children. This article lead to a savaging of Waldman on the internet forum community and blogosphere. What I didn't know until a few chapters into the book, is that Waldman is married to the famous prize-winning author, Michael Chabon.

This book is a collection of essays surrounding the topic of motherhood. These essays are Waldman's own thoughts on family and children. While some are light-hearted, others are more serious and even heart-breaking. Her writing style is direct and engrossing and the pages turn themselves. While I could not say that I agreed with her point of view all the time, I was impressed by her honesty and I believe that overall she is doing a good job as a mother.
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