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Summary: the Mother Trip reviewed in BUST
Review: The Mother Trip by Ariel Gore (Seal Press, 2000) I knew this mama was shooting from the hip by the way she cites the sheer and near-constant exhaustion of mothering a little child several times over in the first few pages. Even if you've got a little burst of energy, by the time you've lovingly, creatively, passionately wrangled the little buggers into their clothing and onto the potty, and gotten them to swallow a few morsels of vitamin-rich food, and loaded up your bag with ten pounds of pretzels and apple juice and picture books and soap bubbles (and forgotten the extra clothes that sure come in handy when they pee all over themselves), and answered 75 questions, and mopped up the spills, and combed their hair, and convinced them to wear shoes, you are exhausted. That's when you need 15 minutes, just 15 uninterrupted minutes, to lie on your side and read this book, because Ariel Gore sympathizes with your plight, while steering a mile clear of schmaltz. The few solutions she offers to the insoluble strangle hold of your own apron strings are actually helpful, like considering using the 60 bucks you were about to drop on weekly therapy appointments to hire a professional housecleaner instead; or forcing yourself to arrange time away from your child on an ongoing basis. There's no shortage of experts in the marketplace telling exhausted mothers what they need to buy, to do and not do to raise their children right. Frankly, we've got more than enough poop to deal with without paying for that kind of advice. The Mother Trip is as refreshing as a stolen cat nap in a field of clean and folded laundry.-Ayun Halliday
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Summary: My Year in Therapy
Review: The Mother Trip offers commiseration and reassurance, shared experience and joyful encouragement. The Mother Trip is the friend who knows you, knows your life, loves you anyway, and best of all helps you to love yourself. At last, someone understands...As author Ariel Gore shares her stories and thoughts, they become our stories, too. What mother hasn't wondered if she's doing the right thing, if she's the kind of mother she "should" be? Like all my mom friends, I struggle to find time for myself while simultaneously worrying about being selfish by doing so. Do I really need to take a Shakespeare class two evenings a week instead of staying home and reading bedtime stories to the kids? Should I go to that Writers' Conference when it means I'd be gone for an entire weekend? Does it make me a bad mom if I travel to San Diego for six glorious days to visit a friend I miss terribly? Does it make me a bad mom if I love being away some times? Take the class, I imagine Ariel saying, enjoy your vacation. "However long you can afford to take," she writes, "the important thing is you take it, and take it without guilt." The beauty of The Mother Trip is that it cuts right into the core of who we are as mothers, which turns out to be far different than you may have read elsewhere. I read essay after essay, meaning to stop after just one more but finding myself unable to put the book down. A third of the way into the book I began to cry, not because the essays were sad, but because the essays, one after another, touched me, spoke to me, reminded me of the way we mothers exchange sacrifice for wholeness and then wonder why we feel incomplete. Because the essays, one after another, were so true. On page 210 I reached an essay entitled "Cry," in which Ariel offers that crying is a "shortcut to...calm": that, in the words of Mata Amritanandamayi, "crying...for five minutes is worth an hour of meditation." Again, Ariel provides not only reassurance but validation. I left the book less burdened by the "shoulds" and sacrifices and self- flagellations that (wrongly) comprise much of modern motherhood, feeling that if five minutes of tears are worth an hour of meditation, then an hour of The Mother Trip must be worth a year of therapy.
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Summary: and what a trip it is!
Review: the new book is fabulous! a hair-raising, amazing series of essays that really capture the true life rewards of having a family. ariel gore really is the voice of her generation.
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Summary: The Mothertrip by Ariel Gore
Review: This book came to me during a hellish week of terrible two tantrums and extreme sleep deprivation. I cried while reading these poetic, honest, inspiring and validating essays. Ariel Gore knows what's up. I also laughed, nodded, giggled and dared to dream ahead --to envision my future --because Gore's writing and voice is that powerful. Gore is an amazing author, woman and mama. Her belief in sharing knowledge and experience to wipe out the isolation, desperation and depression of mamahood is not only right on but the very thing to which she seems to be dedicating her life's work. If it wasn't for The Hipmama Survival Guide, the printed zine, The Mothertrip and the webcommunity (hipmama.com)...I would have perished a long time ago. I fully, and with all my heart and soul, recommend this book.
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Summary: Tales from real life
Review: This book is so important. It acknowledges the rarely-discussed secret that moms are people too, and that they struggle with many different issues and questions larger than potty training (not that potty training isn't a big one) or what to cook for dinner. I think this book is essential for women who are struggling to be mothers and themselves as well. Ariel Gore does a brilliant job of reminding us to connect - to ourselves, to our communities, to the larger political world. Bravo!
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Summary: Like Aloe on a Sunburn
Review: This book was like aloe on a sunburn for me. It earned a place in my diaper bag, so when my baby falls asleep and I have an extra five minutes in the car, I read an essay or two. I gather strength. Ariel Gore's essays are so true, like other hormonal (mama) readers, I have to cry. She is compassionate toward all of us, single, married, poor, hip or hippie. She doesn't have rules that bar us from her club. She encourages us to take care of ourselves, not just our children. I'm a single mom, and I have read lots of books about parenting, but none I treasure like this book. It stands alone. I recommend it as the best book I have read about mothering and discovering yourself, which is The Mother Trip.
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Summary: Every mom should read this book!
Review: This book was so profound I found myself in tears more than once. It was given to me shortly after my daughter was born, and it was so brilliant I've lent out my copy to several mom friends. This would be an especially good gift for a new mom. Each chapter takes about as long to read as it takes to breast-feed a newborn. It's great! However the book is strongly leftist and liberal and might not be appreciated by all.
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Summary: This is the one true book for all mothers...
Review: This is the one book I will be giving as a gift for all future mamas-to-be. This one goes past class lines, this is for mothers in ALL walks of life. It goes beyond "the perfect Diet!" and "the best $200 stroller!" and inane comments on how to satisfy your man while simultaneously mothering. This one speaks to the heart. Whether you are the young mama that Ariel was in her essays on her daughter's birth, or you are an established older mama, or currently riding any point in between - this book will speak to you. It is a sensory experience that is so easy to read, and hard to put down, that I finished it in one late-night sitting. Truly one of the only things worth giving up precious sleep for.
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Summary: Give this book to someone for Mother's Day...
Review: This morning, I gave this inspiring book to a woman I work with. We often discuss the challenges we face as working women trying to do more...be more.... Give it to someone. And don't forget the most important message of the book (or, so I believe..) Take care of yourself, in whatever way that's right FOR YOU..and leave the rest to your intuition.
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