"Why am I trapped in the belief that writing about motherhood is shameful when I know that creating life where once there was none, creating flesh whe"Why am I trapped in the belief that writing about motherhood is shameful when I know that creating life where once there was none, creating flesh where once there was no flesh, is one of the most radical and outrageous things a person can do?"
This fragmented, part auto-fiction, part poetry, part ode to artists gets so much right about motherhood, artistry, capitalism, and the daily monotony of all of the above. Postpartum stages are hazy and overwhelming all at once, you're often trying to find your way back to yourself while trying to keep a human alive. Add in being an artist of some kind through all this...it's a hard mode to sustain. Ravn captures it perfectly, without suggesting this experience of motherhood is monolithic....more
This is basically The Bear in book form?! I was kind of bowled over by how much Larue's bustling restaurant kitchen scenes reminded me of th3.75 stars
This is basically The Bear in book form?! I was kind of bowled over by how much Larue's bustling restaurant kitchen scenes reminded me of the chaos of similar scenes in The Bear (watch The Bear right now if you haven't already), and it's no surprise Larue has years of experience working in restaurants.
It would be easy to see this as a repetitive, too-long novel about dinner rush after dinner rush. But I think that repetition speaks to the overwhelm that service work has on one's life. Both because it is physically demanding and draining and because it barely pays a living wage. In living this life day after day, the narrator is constantly underwater - wired enough after shifts to go to bars instead of going home, too addicted to gambling to hold on to large amounts of money, and too tired to work on his art when he does have a day off (one day often only being enough to recharge in time for the next shift - there is a point when the narrator has the rare two days off in a row, and they are his most artistically productive days in the whole book). Simply put, it's really hard to make a life for yourself when you are overworked and underpaid.
There were a looooot of typos, and I'm not sure whether it's to do with the translation or just poor editing. Other than that, Larue writes about service work in an authentic, detailed way, and I'd def read more in that arena from him....more
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