GOOD (ENOUGH) MOTHER

Fenker reflects on her path to motherhood in this set of essays and stories that encourage extending grace to mothers and their difficult journeys.

At 16, the author was diagnosed with Sjögren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disorder more often attributed to “women in their 60s,” she writes. At 30, she was diagnosed with lupus. And, despite these difficulties, she became pregnant at 32, fulfilling a great wish: “Yes, that doctor who told me I couldn’t have a baby, or something like that, was very wrong.” This collection chronicles the shifts in her attitudes toward motherhood throughout her adult life, culminating in the birth of her son in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown. The most notable of these stories are “A Hallway to the Nursery” and “Nursery Dreaming,” in which Fenker tells of the country house she bought with her husband, which was idyllic and quaint, but lacked any hallways. The house, as she describes it, had an open floor plan in which access to some rooms required entry through others. Upon learning that she was pregnant, Fenker and her husband renovated the house to add a hallway, a passage to a more comforting existence. However, she also calls its origin a “long and messy story”; at other points, the author describes a difficult pregnancy, including preeclampsia that extended her postpartum recovery. Finally, though, she brought her son home to his new nursery. Fenker’s interior, epistolary style of writing deepens her reflections, allowing readers an intimate view of her world, including the traumas and emotional complexities of her illnesses and pregnancy. The episodic structure of her narrative makes for an immersive read, and her clear, honest prose offers readers a heartfelt look at one woman's experience. However, the more salient chapters sit among more ephemeral ones, detailing grocery lists and addressing the “fears of your readers,” which prove distracting at times.

An often poignant, if somewhat disjointed, collection of personal stories.