TITLE: The Mothers
AUTHOR: Brit Bennett
PUBLISHER: Riverhead Books
PUBLISHED DATE: October 11, 2016
ISBN: 978-0399184512
PAGES: 288
Brit Bennett's debut novel, "The Mothers" is breaking the internet right now, and it is completely, totally, and unequivocally deserved. I detached myself from life to read and absorb it...and I am not sorry.
This book not only delves into the failures of motherhood, but it also touches on the ability of women to harm or heal one another. This book has mothers everywhere....the "mothers" of the church who cast their brand of judgemental religion on the hurting young people of the church...a mother of a 17 year old shoots herself in the head, the mother of another allows her boyfriends to sexually abuse her daughter. Then there is the mother who pays for her son's lover's abortion, and then there is the young mother who chooses to have an abortion...There is also the young married woman who longs to become a mother...it is all here. Bennett writes intricately and beautifully, and allows her strong prose to tell the story without judgment.
This book is also about friendship and it's power to harm and heal. Nadia is in pain after the suicide of her mother. Aubrey is in pain after being rejected by her mother in favor of an abusive lover. These two young women forge a friendship that becomes undone over, what else, but a man....and even though at its core this is a simple story of love and loss, it is the introspection of the church mothers informing the story that act as a sprinkling of Lawry's seasoned salt on a Sunday dinner! Yassssss!!! If you're fiending Greenleaf like I am...this is a good book to sink into while you wait for it to come back on!
Recommendation: READ IT!!!!
Audience: Millennials and Beyond (....even though more than half the book is about young and new adults - I'm sure the advanced teen reader would appreciate this gem.)
*I purchased this audiobook on Audible.