Hello Book Lover,
All I wanted as a new mum was a hot cup of tea……oh and some sleep……. and time for a shower….and, to be fair the list went on and on.
Once that post natal fog began to lift and I was reading again (it took me around 7 months before I attempted to pick up a book), what I wanted more than anything was to read a book about mothers which I could relate to, a book which validated how I was feeling and to let me know that I wasn’t alone – how I wish this book had been around 4 years ago.
I will be honest I have no idea who, how or when I heard about The Almost Mothers but as soon as I did, I took a little screen shot of the cover and saved it in my ‘books to buy folder’ on my phone – we all have one of these right. I popped it on my Christmas list last year and the fat man did good, I curled up and devoured it a couple of hours this week.
I haven’t read a lot of short form fiction, so going in I wasn’t sure what to expect however I was blown away by how powerful the twenty six pieces of writing within the fifty nine pages were, from the opening piece ‘Mother Anonymous’ where the final line just took my breath away to the sensitively handled ‘All The Children ‘ which examines grief and loss.
Laura Beasley’s writing is nothing short of sorcery, managing to deftly unpick complex emotions while providing the reader with humour and wit is no easy task however The Almost Mothers is an example of how this can be executed perfectly.
The Almost Mothers doesn’t just focus on those who have children, it looks at motherhood in a variety of ways; touching on those who cannot become “mothers”, ‘The Unmothers’ a piece which focuses on a parade for married women who haven’t yet been able to conceive, to ‘How to Grow Your Own Baby’ which encourages mothers to use the hashtag BarrenBeBanished to ‘That Face’ which looks at societal responses when women say either they don’t want or don’t have children. There were pieces where the focus offered a more futuristic/ dystopian view, ‘Down To Earth’ and ‘2056: A New Generation’, while others examined loss and grief, ‘Near and Far’ and the aforementioned ‘All The Children’.
For me The Almost Mothers encapsulates what it feels like to be a mother, the subtle nuances, the competing emotions and the complete loss of identity and isolation that motherhood can sometimes bring. I wish I had read this during that post natal fog, there are not many books that I can relate to when it comes to Motherhood, this one however elements were spot on, I cannot recommend ‘The Almost Mothers’ enough please buy this collection for anyone who has been a mother or who has a mother.
The Almost Mothers is out now and published by Dahlia Books.
The Literary Addict 