"Garret's timely and compelling book offers a powerful critique of neoliberal ideas of motherhood and its representation. examining domestic fiction and popular cultural texts between 1990s-2010s, Garret's incisive readings triangulate genre, feminism, and politics, opening mums' lit, misery memoirs and crime fiction to new assessment. absolutely essential reading for feminist popular fiction, and motherhood scholars." --Charlotte Beyer, University of Gloucestershire "Writing the Modern Family takes the reader on a stunning tour of the familial. Garrett skilfully unpicks the reinvented mythologies of the modern family, which remains as unattainable and powerful as ever. the book is a literary masterclass in hunting down mother-shaming and domestic dysfunction, guilt, rage, and discontent, across the pages of misery menoir, 'dad lit', postfeminist confessional." --Tracey Jensen, Lancaster University "Convincingly arguing that we really do need to talk about family dynamics and the maternal role, Roberta Garrett's original and timely new study reveals just what has been at stake in writing about and challenging the dominant discourse on motherhood over the last twenty years." --Peter Childs "In Writing the Modern Family Roberta Garrettexamines a range of recent fictional treatments of the family, demonstrating how such representations respond to a neoliberal culture of rewards and punishments for women's behaviour.

Urgently topical and clearly written, the book marries literary criticism with cultural studies to offer a compelling insight into the ideological challenges faced by feminism in confronting continued patriarchal privilege." --Peter Morey, Professor and Chair in 20th Century English Literature, University of Birmingham.