I read a review (registration may be required) in Sunday’s Washington Post Book World of Jump at the Sun,a new novel by Kim McLarin. It’s about Grace, a successful black woman in Boston with two daughters, who stays at home to raise her kids while her "PhD goes to waste." The author contrasts Grace’s life with that of her grandmother, who abandoned her children, and her mother, who "made a career out of self-sacrifice." The book explores Grace’s feelings of being trapped in her role as a mother, despite the fact that she appears to "have it all." According to the Post:
Some may see this book as an attack on motherhood or a long complaint about it, while others may question why Grace didn’t return to work, hire a babysitter or seek therapy. After all, Grace is a sociologist who briefly dabbled in psychology and scares herself with thoughts such as "To have children is to understand the impulse toward child abuse . . . . You will be surprised at the visceralness of your reactions sometimes. You will be horrified at the way you behave." But most readers will find Grace’s desperation heartfelt and her journey absorbing, as told in vigorous, luxuriant prose. Her eventual visit to her grandmother, accompanied by her own mother, is a poignant, heartbreaking scene, and Grace’s question still haunts us after the book is closed: "Isn’t everything everybody ever does about their mother in some way?"
I am drawn to this book because it’s a fresh voice in the never-ending dialogue about motherhood and the inevitable loss of self that can accompany it. Telling the story from the perspective of three women, from three generations, only reinforces how universal this struggle is.
Incidentally, when I was looking for other reviews of this book, I came across this great blog: http://books4breakfast.blogspot.com/, subtitled "One year, 150 books." The blog’s author, Kristin Dodge, has set out to read 150 books in one year. Her blog posts are all short reviews of the books she’s read so far (81). It’s an addictive site, and also a great source for new reads. (I also love that she is on a constant quest to find books that are as good as her all-time favorite, To Kill a Mockingbird). Here’s what Kristin had to say about Jump at the Sun (#77):
Grace Jefferson is living the life her enslaved great-grandmother would relish — an educated sociologist choosing to stay home with her two daughters while her husband works at a prestigious science lab.
But after a pregnancy scare, she wonders if she is making the right choices for her own sanity. When McLarin writes of the searingly mind-numbing reality of stay-at-home parenting, she nails the truth to the cross, whether it is pretty or not. After years of reading about the joys and the blessings, it’s like switching from Boone’s to Champagne.
Mixing Grace’s story with her grandmother’s and mother’s, we learn of family function and dysfunction, abandonment and freedom. What is the truth? What is anyone’s truth?
I know this for a fact: Kim McLarin may be the most honest writer I’ve read in a long time, and while she aims to speak for African American women, she spoke for many of us wannabe super-moms.
Good luck, Kristin, with the remaining 69 books! I will be checking back often.