One of Publishers Weekly Buzz Books of Spring/Summer 2018 One of The Wall Street Journal ''s Most Highly Anticipated Novels of 2018 One of Vulture ''s 10 Most Exciting Book Releases of 2018 One of The Millions '' Most Anticipated Books of 2018 One of Chicago Reader'' s Books We Can''t Wait to Read in 2018 "Heti maintains her provocative edge with her latest, an interior monologue disguised as a novel that questions, exactly, what it means to have a child. Motherhood juxtaposes societal expectation with personal desire." --David Canfield, Entertainment Weekly ("20 new books to read in May") "The title of Heti''s latest work of autofiction--a fashionable hybrid of essay, memoir, and novel--should properly end in a question mark like her last book, How Should a Person Be? . Heti''s aggressively ruminative avatar documents parenthood in her demographic as though it were a distant continent in a world without jet travel: the crossing would be perilous and irreversible, and require a lot of unpacking." --Boris Kachka, Vulture " Motherhood is an exhibition of Heti''s freedom." --Willa Paskin, Slate "Heti deploys a stream of consciousness style of prose, which often strikes gold . An interesting tug-of-war to bear witness to: A successful writer''s internal battle regarding what should be done with the rest of her life. She reaches into every crevice of her brain, her soul, her womb, to pull out some semblance of a driving force behind her decision to have or not to have children .
Compelling . What is unfaltering and charming about the way Heti writes is her utter unpretentiousness. She acknowledges certain insecurities and desires--to have big breasts, for example--but in a way that is so innately human. Her preoccupation with how the world sees her offers an earnestness that, spun between more nuanced interpretations of life and her art, connected me to Sheila in a way that felt secret, or just mine . For those of us who do waver, who still yearn to fill our lives with travel and sex, and also maybe that boundless love that people yearn for, Motherhood is essential reading. If only to assure you you''re not alone." --Rachel Ellison, Bustle "Original, insightful . Motherhood is such a powerful story, it''s as if she has to subvert the narrative logic of both novel and memoir to divine her true desires .
It has also opened up a fruitful space for considering motherhood in all its complications . Terrifically funny and engaging." --Julie Phillips, 4Columns "Heti''s book, like many of her novels, takes the mind as the primary setting, and thoughts are the major source of action: narrative arcs begin and end with the progress of her characters'' thinking, and the process by which they arrive at their conclusions. In Motherhood , this style suits the subject well--we''re brought so close to the narrator''s ongoing internal monologue that soon her thoughts start to feel like the reader''s. The more she thinks, the closer she gets to an answer to the real question posed to people with uteruses, not what if or why but where ." --Haley Mlotek, The Ringer "Ponderous . Heti''s book strikes upon one of the most mystical American beliefs surrounding motherhood." --Heather Wilhelm, National Review "Earthy and philosophical and essential .
Motherhood floats, as did Heti''s excellent novel How Should a Person Be? (2012), somewhere between fiction and nonfiction. It reads like an inspired monologue . Heti''s semi-fiction, like that of writers like Ben Lerner, Rachel Cusk and Teju Cole, among others, is dismantling our notions of what a novel should be . She deals out her ideas in no-nonsense form, as if she were pulling espresso shots . This book is endlessly quotable, and a perfect review would be nothing but quotations. She makes a banquet of her objections to parenthood. If you are an underliner, as I am, your pen may go dry . Indeed, Heti always seems to be drawing from a paranormally deep well .
Funny . Cannily employed." --Dwight Garner, The New York Times "Engrossing . Motherhood joins How Should a Person Be? and Women in Clothes to form what might be read as a field guide to womanhood in a particular literary-bohemian milieu . Motherhood, in this book, exists most of all as a force that shapes women''s lives and their relationships with one another. Heti approaches the subject with an observer''s curiosity more than a deliberate agenda . Motherhood foils my abilities as a critic: I like the book as a catalyst for thought, and admire its ability to withstand sustained consideration." --Molly Fischer, New York Magazine "Illuminating .
Intimate . Poignant." --Alexandra Schwartz, The New Yorker "In Motherhood , Heti takes on her most controversial and private debate yet--whether or not to have a child. A brilliant, radical, and moving book, it is sure to cause the cultural riot her earlier work has . There''s a new quality to Heti''s writing in Motherhood . The only way I can describe it is tenderness . Beautiful . Surprising.
" --Claudia Dey, The Paris Review " Motherhood goes deeper than simple yes or no answers. Heti wants to give women permission to take this question [of whether or not to have a child] seriously . One of the most powerful parts of Motherhood is that it doesn''t pit women against each other; instead, it creates an ongoing dialogue . invigorating." --Michele Filgate, Publishers Weekly (interview) "The book is a painterly examination of [Heti''s] psyche--a Rorschach blot of inborn pressures and the exuberant autonomy that threatens them . Add love letter to the list of what Motherhood is . She tracks a clear trajectory of matriarchal pain . Sensuous and velvety .
continually spiraling back to self-contained joy when she finds herself unabashedly grateful." --Monica Uszerowicz, BOMB Magazine "How can I be sure that I want to have a child? Motherhood --a tortured, honest novel--is the Canadian writer Sheila Heti''s attempt to answer this impossible question . Her creative process doubles as an attempt to work out her own feelings on the subject . The result is a book that is eclectic and compelling, a rare account of how a woman might sidestep what is, for many, a defining life event: the birth of a child. Motherhood is about everything one would expect: female identity, the durability of romantic love, the conflict and resemblances between making children and making art. But it is also a book about fate, agency, and, ultimately, time--how it passes, and what happens while we wait." --Maggie Doherty, The New Republic "Opening Sheila Heti''s new novel, Motherhood , is like hearing a song that you know, just a few beats in, will be your new favorite . Heti has achieved a mystic''s appreciation for the basics of being alive, a place that many equally ambitious writers never reach.
Unspooling the raw details of random chance, her romantic relationship, her maternal ancestors, her friends, her soul, and most importantly, her art, the novel deepens in feeling until the very last page . A major work and a must-read for anyone interested in musings on motherhood." --Diana Michele Yap, Washington City Paper (a "critics'' pick") "Here is finally is. A book for all of you who are considering having a baby, who had a baby, who didn''t have a baby, who didn''t want a baby, who don''t know what they want but the clock is ticking anyway. This topic is finally tackled as if it were the most important decision in your life. Because, um. How lucky are we that one of our foremost thinkers took this upon herself, for years, in real time, wrestling every day and living to tell. So fucking ready to live in the world this book will help make.
Read and discuss, discuss, discuss." --Miranda July, author of The First Bad Man "An emotionally complex novel about motherhood that isn''t about children. An intricately constructed book based on games of chance. This feels new." --Jenny Offill, author of Dept. of Speculation "A provocative, creative, and triumphant work of philosophical feminist fiction . Heti writes with courage, curiosity, and uncommon truth." -- Booklist (starred review) "Charismatic and beguilingly original .
oddly compelling . Sheila is funny, and idiosyncratic enough to rub contra to 2018, a time when the litmus test for a woman''s success is the extent to which her daily planner is a subject of marvel . A joy to read." -- Bookforum "I deeply enjoyed Sheila Heti''s fractal, meticulous, and twinklingly self-aware book--in which every part seemed to know, and be informed by, every other part--about art and time and change and books and babies. Motherhood synergistically functions both as an intimate, moving, autobiographical novel and as a practical, mysterious, five-year tool used by its protagonist to help her contemplate and answer central questions in her life. I think of Motherhood as a beautiful, natural, living thing--a rare tree in the car-filled parking lot of literature, offering aesthetic and sustainable pleasures while also bristling with multiple, helpful, compassionate functions in the world. The high stakes, complexity, intensity, playfulness, seriousness, and inter-dimensionality of Motherhood ''s synthesis of ar.