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Nine Months
In Paula Bomer's bold, unapologetic debut novel, a pregnant mother and wife abandons her family in search of an identity that is hers alone after she finds herself unexpectedly pregnant for the third time. She does everything a pregnant mother shouldn't do—engaging in casual sex, drinking beer, and smoking weed—as she attempts to reclaim her sidelined career as an artist. A lacerating response to the culture of mommy blogs, helicopter parents, and "parental correctness" as well as an unflinching look at the choices women face when trying to balance art and family.
272 pages, Paperback
First published July 17, 2012
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About the author
Paula Bomer
19 books96 followersI'm the author of the novels Tante Eva and Nine Months (Soho Press), the collection Inside Madeleine (Soho Press), Baby and Other Stories (Word Riot Press), I grew up in South Bend, Indiana and live in Brooklyn, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
December 16, 2012
Bomer nails so much dark truth in this highly entertaining and bold novel. I loved Sonia, the young mother who finds that she's unexpectedly pregnant, but I also love so many of the other characters throughout this rollicking story--Sonia's young sons, her agitated husband, her washed-up hometown friends, her weird old drug friend Katrina, her judgmental sister, and her confrontational ex-lover/art teacher. Well, maybe I don't love the characters as much as I'm super impressed by Bomer's talent at bringing them to life. As Sonia gets more pregnant and more desperate in her quest for some kind of personal truth, Nine Months really blossoms into one of the best novels I've read in a while.
June 13, 2012
At first, this book looked promising. It was similar to a short story I wanted to write myself when I was in the hazy, troubled early months of caring for infant twins. I had real and powerful fantasies of just leaving, taking our crappy Acura and driving to Kansas. I worried about details like how I would deal with my painful nursing breasts when the babies weren't around. Mostly, though, I just dreamed about how great 12 hours of sleep alone in a hotel would feel.
Of course I never did leave for Kansas or anywhere else, and of course I'm glad. I still think the story of a beset new mother who acted on fantasy like this would make a great, heart-wrenching novel in the right hands, and there were some moments in this book that captured the feeling of being trapped by motherhood for me. By the end, though, the unpleasantness of the narrator completely turned me off, and I felt ashamed of myself for relating to any part of this story.
Why? It may sound hypocritical, given that I've just confessed my own former selfish fantasy of leaving my husband and babies, but Sonia was so self-absorbed, so contemptuous of everyone around her (her friend, her shrink, etc.) and so typical of the kind of heroine that lots of contemporary fiction writers think we're all going to relate to, that in the end I felt much more sympathy for her husband and the two kids she temporarily abandoned than I did for her. It's not that I don't think pregnancy can make a woman feel and act crazy. It's just that I think this novel failed to make such a woman at all interesting. (She was also so foul-mouthed that I kept hearing my mom's voice in my head: "Is all that bad language really necessary?")
On top of the character issue, the writing did nothing for me.
So this one gets an extra star for promising subject matter. But it failed on all other fronts. I wanted to wash my hands after reading this book. And I gave my husband and kids extra hugs and kisses.
Of course I never did leave for Kansas or anywhere else, and of course I'm glad. I still think the story of a beset new mother who acted on fantasy like this would make a great, heart-wrenching novel in the right hands, and there were some moments in this book that captured the feeling of being trapped by motherhood for me. By the end, though, the unpleasantness of the narrator completely turned me off, and I felt ashamed of myself for relating to any part of this story.
Why? It may sound hypocritical, given that I've just confessed my own former selfish fantasy of leaving my husband and babies, but Sonia was so self-absorbed, so contemptuous of everyone around her (her friend, her shrink, etc.) and so typical of the kind of heroine that lots of contemporary fiction writers think we're all going to relate to, that in the end I felt much more sympathy for her husband and the two kids she temporarily abandoned than I did for her. It's not that I don't think pregnancy can make a woman feel and act crazy. It's just that I think this novel failed to make such a woman at all interesting. (She was also so foul-mouthed that I kept hearing my mom's voice in my head: "Is all that bad language really necessary?")
On top of the character issue, the writing did nothing for me.
So this one gets an extra star for promising subject matter. But it failed on all other fronts. I wanted to wash my hands after reading this book. And I gave my husband and kids extra hugs and kisses.
June 14, 2012
I loved this book! I would warn that it's a somewhat transgressive view of motherhood and pregnancy, and it's not for everyone. The MC, Sonia, behaves badly. Very badly. The sort of behavior that had me alternating between moaning and laughing out loud. NINE MONTHS has some important things to say as well, about the conflicts between women's roles and women's creative ambitions, even as it to some degree affirms the fundamental creativity of creating life and giving birth.
If you're the sort of person who would be offended by a fictional portrayal of a pregnant woman doing everything the "mommy blogs" say she should not -- don't read this. If you want to read an insightful, well-written and very funny book about a creative woman trying to come to grips with her own life, this book's for you.
If you're the sort of person who would be offended by a fictional portrayal of a pregnant woman doing everything the "mommy blogs" say she should not -- don't read this. If you want to read an insightful, well-written and very funny book about a creative woman trying to come to grips with her own life, this book's for you.
August 21, 2012
Nine Months is an audacious novel that explores the difficult journey of a woman who is struggling to balance her need for individuality with motherhood. Sonia was relieved to find that mothering was becoming a little easier as her two young sons began to gain independence. However her dreams of reclaiming the ambitions she held before their birth is shattered when she discovers she is pregnant again. Ruling out an abortion, Sonia attempts to reconcile the impending birth with her feelings of loss and frustration but as her due date draws closer, the temptation to escape the pressure proves too strong. Abandoning her husband and children, Sonia withdraws the family's savings and sets off on a wild cross country road trip in search of the woman she once was.
Self absorbed, petty and vulgar it's easy to judge Sonia for her impetuous actions. However, I think there are very few mothers, who in those first hellish months of motherhood, have not fleetingly thought about escaping their infants incessant demands or at least briefly mourned the carefree, autonomous life they led before parenthood. Bomer magnifies those doubts and longings, giving her character permission to both feel and act on them without censoring herself. Sonia's wild escape is response to depression, desperation and frustration, though of course she can't leave behind the child in her womb. Instead she does her best to pretend it is either not there or somehow separate from her.
It's worth noting that Sonia's debauchery only consists of a handful of incidents. She indulges in only one anonymous sex encounter and just two hits off a joint, though she drinks (mainly beer) fairly freely. However these single acts are enough to likely condemn her in popular opinion, even by those who may have sympathised with her need to escape. Neither is Sonia all 'bad', there are moments of ambivalence and reflection that stir empathy and allow the reader to glimpse her less hormone crazed identity.
While it seems likely to me that Sonia is suffering from severe pre partum depression (which affects 10-15% of women), particularly since its is noted that in her previous pregnancies she experienced strong mood swings and high anxiety, there are no clear signs that Bomer wrote Sonia with that affliction at her core. Perhaps it is simply wishful thinking on my part, since I do find Sonia's behaviour repugnant in the main, though I am not without empathy for her.
The first person point of view of Nine Months is immediate and raw. Descriptions are often crude and those offended by explicit content and language will want to steer clear of this novel. The pace is surprisingly brisk, I didn't want to put it down, engrossed by Sonia's emotional journey.
Confronting, seditious and original Nine Months is a compelling novel. I expect opinions of the novel will be divisive among its readership. Personally, I think Bomer is brave in exposing a rarely acknowledged aspect of pregnancy and motherhood.
Self absorbed, petty and vulgar it's easy to judge Sonia for her impetuous actions. However, I think there are very few mothers, who in those first hellish months of motherhood, have not fleetingly thought about escaping their infants incessant demands or at least briefly mourned the carefree, autonomous life they led before parenthood. Bomer magnifies those doubts and longings, giving her character permission to both feel and act on them without censoring herself. Sonia's wild escape is response to depression, desperation and frustration, though of course she can't leave behind the child in her womb. Instead she does her best to pretend it is either not there or somehow separate from her.
It's worth noting that Sonia's debauchery only consists of a handful of incidents. She indulges in only one anonymous sex encounter and just two hits off a joint, though she drinks (mainly beer) fairly freely. However these single acts are enough to likely condemn her in popular opinion, even by those who may have sympathised with her need to escape. Neither is Sonia all 'bad', there are moments of ambivalence and reflection that stir empathy and allow the reader to glimpse her less hormone crazed identity.
While it seems likely to me that Sonia is suffering from severe pre partum depression (which affects 10-15% of women), particularly since its is noted that in her previous pregnancies she experienced strong mood swings and high anxiety, there are no clear signs that Bomer wrote Sonia with that affliction at her core. Perhaps it is simply wishful thinking on my part, since I do find Sonia's behaviour repugnant in the main, though I am not without empathy for her.
The first person point of view of Nine Months is immediate and raw. Descriptions are often crude and those offended by explicit content and language will want to steer clear of this novel. The pace is surprisingly brisk, I didn't want to put it down, engrossed by Sonia's emotional journey.
Confronting, seditious and original Nine Months is a compelling novel. I expect opinions of the novel will be divisive among its readership. Personally, I think Bomer is brave in exposing a rarely acknowledged aspect of pregnancy and motherhood.
April 18, 2012
This story of a mother's attempt to run from her third, unplanned, pregnancy is certainly dark(ly funny), but I was pleasantly surprised by the flashes of undeniable affection she feels for the life she's compelled to leave behind, if only for a few months. Those moments of ambivalence really brought out sincerity in the book. And, as one would expect from the author behind the collection BABY, the writing is stellar.
July 30, 2012
This is a fast, engaging read, and Paula Bomer makes it seem effortless.
A lot of people aren't going to like this narrator. If you think women, particularly mothers, should always say and do the "right" thing, then this book is going to anger you. If this story were narrated by a man, people wouldn't be freaking out.
I love Paula Bomer.
A lot of people aren't going to like this narrator. If you think women, particularly mothers, should always say and do the "right" thing, then this book is going to anger you. If this story were narrated by a man, people wouldn't be freaking out.
I love Paula Bomer.
July 12, 2012
Not one character in this book worthy of my time.
October 8, 2012
THIS REVIEW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT THE NERVOUS BREAKDOWN.
Don’t let the egg on the cover fool you—it’s riddled with cracks. Nine Months (Soho Press) by Paula Bomer is the opposite of every clichéd story about mothers, birth, children, marriage and identity. It is the raw, honest and brutal story of Sonia, a mother pregnant with her third child, and unhappy with every aspect of her life. She used to be a painter, she used to run wild and free, sleeping with whomever she wanted to, living for herself. Faced with the birth of her third child, she abandons her husband, Dick, and her two boys, and hits the highway, searching for something, open to whatever comes her way.
Bomer cuts across the grain from the very beginning of this novel. We expect to see a traditional mother: happy to take care of her children, content in her role as caregiver and housekeeper. But Sonia is far from Mrs. Cleaver. She is frustrated, isolated and uncertain as to what can make her happy. Take this passage, from the moments right after the birth of her daughter. Is this the mindset of a well-adjusted and hopeful mother?
“First slowly, and then, as if something in her wired-for-survival brain clicks, she ferociously latches on to Sonia’s nipple and sucks on her like that’s what she’s been put on this earth to do. Which is, in fact, true. Her daughter is here to suck the life out of her, and leave her for the spent, middle-aged woman she soon will be. Nothing will be remotely the same again. No one has ever threatened Sonia as much as this unnamed infant. No one has ever made it clear how useless and spent she really is.”
Sonia borders on the psychotic, getting no real pleasure out of the things in life that should make her happy—everything from feeding her kids to having sex with her husband to taking a stroll to the park. She is moody, but she is not empty. Everything sets her off—she is sensitive, overly sensitive—and overflowing with emotions. Here she is in the park with her neighbor Clara, describing Clara’s daughter, Willa:
“Willa stares at the two of them, her mouth set in a pout…She freaks Sonia out…She feels spied upon. She feels judged. She feels like this little two-year-old girl is already sizing her up to see how she can bring her down. She feels like Willa knows how to be mean already. No hitting on impulse, without thinking about it, like her boys do. Not that kind of meanness, not the behaving without thinking sort of spontaneous behavior. No Willa, two-year-old Willa, who’s still in diapers, who still sucks on her thumb, already knows how to be a fucking bitch.”
Did Sonia really just call a two-year old a fucking bitch? This sets the tone for the rest of the novel. But where a lesser author might have left Sonia a two-dimensional harpy, hitting the same note over and over again, Bomer takes us deep within the complications of motherhood and childbirth. A woman’s body changes, she becomes engorged. She’s hot one moment and cold the next; turned on and eager to be touched one day, and ready to vomit at the slightest caress the next. Over time we come to sympathize with Sonia, this woman who has abandoned her family and run away. Who hasn’t lost their mind for a moment—resented their job, their spouse, and their kids? If we’re honest with ourselves, we must admit it. Yet Bomer shows us moments of compassion, as well:
“The kitchen is dark but comforting. Walking this way, with her young boy in her arms, she sets about to making coffee, balancing Mike on her hip and doing everything else with one hand, so as not have to put down her son. So she can keep this warm, wet-bottomed bundle in her arms as she does what needs to be done. And life is good. Life is very good. And Sonia is thankful for her family, eager for her precious, mediocre life, and she can’t believe that once again, she’s going to be a mother to someone new.”
Just when we think that we’ve seen everything there is to see in Sonia, we get more. We understand that she is afraid and uncertain. We see that she loves her family, but needs time to find herself. We even grasp her explosion, her temper, her moments of cold-hearted violence. But she is a sexual being too, and while driving down a dark highway, alone, a moment strikes her, and she is suddenly aroused, unable to control her needs and desires—unwilling to ignore them. Nearing the end of her pregnancy, swollen with a bad case of hemorrhoids, sitting on a plastic donut, it is an unlikely situation for a woman to get aroused, but the tension begs for release:
“Sonia scoots her ass around so she’s gripping the sides of the donut with her ass cheeks. She manages to move the donut with the grip of her butt, so that she now perches on the side of it, rather than sitting on it as she’s meant to sit on it. No more floating in the hole. No more parts of her being suspended in free air. No, now she feels the lips of her crotch embracing the plastic of the donut. She swerves a bit during this maneuvering and looks in the rearview mirror. Her breath is coming a bit more quickly now. She’s nervous. No one behind her, no one immediately behind her. There are some lights far back, far, far back, as this Midwestern highway is so straight and flat she can see for what seems like forever.
She begins grinding, back and forth, back and forth. God. It’s been too long since she last masturbated.”
The scene continues, but I won’t quote it here in its entirety—you’ll have to buy the book. There are moments of shame, of desperation, the flashing lights of a policeman pulling her over, a rush to complete what she started. In one of the most vulnerable moments of the book, we understand what it is to be alive, this need to feel something, anything. Sometimes we succumb.
Paula Bomer has written a dark, honest and powerful novel in Nine Months, one that constantly surprises the reader as the layers of emotion are peeled off, one after another, revealing the depth and need of the human experience. Bomer says that our natural reaction to a bear in the woods is survival—fight or flight. And for her protagonist, Sonia, “the bear’s her whole fucking life.”
Don’t let the egg on the cover fool you—it’s riddled with cracks. Nine Months (Soho Press) by Paula Bomer is the opposite of every clichéd story about mothers, birth, children, marriage and identity. It is the raw, honest and brutal story of Sonia, a mother pregnant with her third child, and unhappy with every aspect of her life. She used to be a painter, she used to run wild and free, sleeping with whomever she wanted to, living for herself. Faced with the birth of her third child, she abandons her husband, Dick, and her two boys, and hits the highway, searching for something, open to whatever comes her way.
Bomer cuts across the grain from the very beginning of this novel. We expect to see a traditional mother: happy to take care of her children, content in her role as caregiver and housekeeper. But Sonia is far from Mrs. Cleaver. She is frustrated, isolated and uncertain as to what can make her happy. Take this passage, from the moments right after the birth of her daughter. Is this the mindset of a well-adjusted and hopeful mother?
“First slowly, and then, as if something in her wired-for-survival brain clicks, she ferociously latches on to Sonia’s nipple and sucks on her like that’s what she’s been put on this earth to do. Which is, in fact, true. Her daughter is here to suck the life out of her, and leave her for the spent, middle-aged woman she soon will be. Nothing will be remotely the same again. No one has ever threatened Sonia as much as this unnamed infant. No one has ever made it clear how useless and spent she really is.”
Sonia borders on the psychotic, getting no real pleasure out of the things in life that should make her happy—everything from feeding her kids to having sex with her husband to taking a stroll to the park. She is moody, but she is not empty. Everything sets her off—she is sensitive, overly sensitive—and overflowing with emotions. Here she is in the park with her neighbor Clara, describing Clara’s daughter, Willa:
“Willa stares at the two of them, her mouth set in a pout…She freaks Sonia out…She feels spied upon. She feels judged. She feels like this little two-year-old girl is already sizing her up to see how she can bring her down. She feels like Willa knows how to be mean already. No hitting on impulse, without thinking about it, like her boys do. Not that kind of meanness, not the behaving without thinking sort of spontaneous behavior. No Willa, two-year-old Willa, who’s still in diapers, who still sucks on her thumb, already knows how to be a fucking bitch.”
Did Sonia really just call a two-year old a fucking bitch? This sets the tone for the rest of the novel. But where a lesser author might have left Sonia a two-dimensional harpy, hitting the same note over and over again, Bomer takes us deep within the complications of motherhood and childbirth. A woman’s body changes, she becomes engorged. She’s hot one moment and cold the next; turned on and eager to be touched one day, and ready to vomit at the slightest caress the next. Over time we come to sympathize with Sonia, this woman who has abandoned her family and run away. Who hasn’t lost their mind for a moment—resented their job, their spouse, and their kids? If we’re honest with ourselves, we must admit it. Yet Bomer shows us moments of compassion, as well:
“The kitchen is dark but comforting. Walking this way, with her young boy in her arms, she sets about to making coffee, balancing Mike on her hip and doing everything else with one hand, so as not have to put down her son. So she can keep this warm, wet-bottomed bundle in her arms as she does what needs to be done. And life is good. Life is very good. And Sonia is thankful for her family, eager for her precious, mediocre life, and she can’t believe that once again, she’s going to be a mother to someone new.”
Just when we think that we’ve seen everything there is to see in Sonia, we get more. We understand that she is afraid and uncertain. We see that she loves her family, but needs time to find herself. We even grasp her explosion, her temper, her moments of cold-hearted violence. But she is a sexual being too, and while driving down a dark highway, alone, a moment strikes her, and she is suddenly aroused, unable to control her needs and desires—unwilling to ignore them. Nearing the end of her pregnancy, swollen with a bad case of hemorrhoids, sitting on a plastic donut, it is an unlikely situation for a woman to get aroused, but the tension begs for release:
“Sonia scoots her ass around so she’s gripping the sides of the donut with her ass cheeks. She manages to move the donut with the grip of her butt, so that she now perches on the side of it, rather than sitting on it as she’s meant to sit on it. No more floating in the hole. No more parts of her being suspended in free air. No, now she feels the lips of her crotch embracing the plastic of the donut. She swerves a bit during this maneuvering and looks in the rearview mirror. Her breath is coming a bit more quickly now. She’s nervous. No one behind her, no one immediately behind her. There are some lights far back, far, far back, as this Midwestern highway is so straight and flat she can see for what seems like forever.
She begins grinding, back and forth, back and forth. God. It’s been too long since she last masturbated.”
The scene continues, but I won’t quote it here in its entirety—you’ll have to buy the book. There are moments of shame, of desperation, the flashing lights of a policeman pulling her over, a rush to complete what she started. In one of the most vulnerable moments of the book, we understand what it is to be alive, this need to feel something, anything. Sometimes we succumb.
Paula Bomer has written a dark, honest and powerful novel in Nine Months, one that constantly surprises the reader as the layers of emotion are peeled off, one after another, revealing the depth and need of the human experience. Bomer says that our natural reaction to a bear in the woods is survival—fight or flight. And for her protagonist, Sonia, “the bear’s her whole fucking life.”
July 30, 2014
(originally published at http://nomadreader.blogspot.com)
The basics: Nine Months is the story of Brooklyn wife and mom of two Sonia, who finds herself unintentionally and unhappily pregnant with number three. With frustration mounting, Sonia takes off on a cross-country trip alone--and does so many things pregnant women aren't supposed to do.
My thoughts: I've been saving Nine Months to read until I was very, very pregnant. I'm so glad I did because it was fun to live vicariously through Sonia. I'm happily pregnant, of course, but I also really dislike being pregnant. The thought of being pregnant again--ever--terrifies me. I can relate to Sonia's feeling of helplessness, but as real as it is, this novel is also escapist fun. It's fantasy that's firmly planted in reality:
Through her marriage and her children, Sonia has lost something of herself. She's been looking forward to having her youngest in school so she can (finally) return to her art. Another child would hinder those plans; it would also mean their already cramped Brooklyn two-bedroom apartment would become impossible to live in.
There's a rawness and an honesty to both Sonia and Bomer's writing that I loved: "Not for the first time, she hates the fact that she is raising her kids in New York, where people treat their children like a combination between a science and an art project." This novel is wickedly funny in a way that isn't necessarily socially acceptable. It's dark and comical, but it's also firmly grounded in reality:
The situations Sonia encounters are real, and perhaps her actions are too. For me? I wouldn't have the guts to act as recklessly as she does.
Favorite passage: "And as much as she feared being a minority in Kensington, she fears even more being literally stranded among people who are supposedly just like her. She’s never felt that anyone was just like her, regardless of skin color or money—it’s just not a dream she could ever buy into. It doesn’t ring any bell for her."
The verdict: I adored Nine Months as much for Sonia's illicit adventures as I did for Bomer's writing. It's a brave novel, and the combination of literary escape and social commentary is a winning one.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
The basics: Nine Months is the story of Brooklyn wife and mom of two Sonia, who finds herself unintentionally and unhappily pregnant with number three. With frustration mounting, Sonia takes off on a cross-country trip alone--and does so many things pregnant women aren't supposed to do.
My thoughts: I've been saving Nine Months to read until I was very, very pregnant. I'm so glad I did because it was fun to live vicariously through Sonia. I'm happily pregnant, of course, but I also really dislike being pregnant. The thought of being pregnant again--ever--terrifies me. I can relate to Sonia's feeling of helplessness, but as real as it is, this novel is also escapist fun. It's fantasy that's firmly planted in reality:
""You’re pregnant. You’re doing a great job. I know it’s hard.” “You don’t know how hard it is. And I’m not doing a ‘great job.’ I haven’t done anything, except fuck you. This is happening to me, don’t you understand? I have nothing to do with it. It’s taking over me. It’s taking over my body and my soul, for God’s sake, like some parasite, like some alien virus.” Tears come to her eyes."
Through her marriage and her children, Sonia has lost something of herself. She's been looking forward to having her youngest in school so she can (finally) return to her art. Another child would hinder those plans; it would also mean their already cramped Brooklyn two-bedroom apartment would become impossible to live in.
There's a rawness and an honesty to both Sonia and Bomer's writing that I loved: "Not for the first time, she hates the fact that she is raising her kids in New York, where people treat their children like a combination between a science and an art project." This novel is wickedly funny in a way that isn't necessarily socially acceptable. It's dark and comical, but it's also firmly grounded in reality:
"The baby’s mouth roots around like a baby bird, unable to grasp on. So Sonia squeezes her nipple and colostrum comes out and the infant’s lips touch the pre-milk milk and then, it works—the baby tries to suck. First slowly, and then, as if something in her wired-for-survival brain clicks, she ferociously latches on to Sonia’s nipple and sucks on her like that’s what she’s been put on this earth to do. Which is, in fact, true. Her daughter is here to suck the life out of her, and leave her for the spent, middle-aged woman she soon will be."
The situations Sonia encounters are real, and perhaps her actions are too. For me? I wouldn't have the guts to act as recklessly as she does.
Favorite passage: "And as much as she feared being a minority in Kensington, she fears even more being literally stranded among people who are supposedly just like her. She’s never felt that anyone was just like her, regardless of skin color or money—it’s just not a dream she could ever buy into. It doesn’t ring any bell for her."
The verdict: I adored Nine Months as much for Sonia's illicit adventures as I did for Bomer's writing. It's a brave novel, and the combination of literary escape and social commentary is a winning one.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5
September 22, 2019
I would be very curious to talk to another person who read this book. More specifically, a person who read this book and either like it or could identify for more than a few seconds with the main character, Sonia. Because despite the fact that she and I have several similarities in our lives – I just could not stand her.
Which I suspected would be the case going into “Nine Months” given the blurb I’d read. I didn’t expect that a story about a woman who abandoned her husband and two children while pregnant with her third would be either touching or heartwarming. But I thought I would come to understand why Sonia made that decision – at least from her point of view.
But the closest I came was summed up with this. “All her life, all of her thirty-five years, she’s only wanted to experience everything…”
Sonia is selfish, hedonistic, incredibly crude, critical of everyone except herself, verbally abusive and just not very interesting. Although I am sure she finds herself fascinating.
With such a main character, a book could still be interesting if the characters surrounding her were well drawn, layered…even just realistic. But the stereotypes here are just eye rolling. Upper-middle class entitled New York wives? Check. “Clarissa and Riva believed in their inheritances. They believed in staying home and shopping. They believed that they were their husbands’ wives and their children’s mother. And those who didn’t believe didn’t have the same God. Those who didn’t believe weren’t saved.”
The over nurturing to the point of creepiness Earth mother? Check. Gun loving and toting xenophobic mother? Check. Overworked husband who doesn’t understand his wife’s needs? Check.
This is a story about a woman who wants for almost nothing…and mostly wants what she can’t have. She wants to make no choices and every choice. She wants it all and none of it. Nothing seems to make her happy. Which makes for a very unhappy reader.
Which I suspected would be the case going into “Nine Months” given the blurb I’d read. I didn’t expect that a story about a woman who abandoned her husband and two children while pregnant with her third would be either touching or heartwarming. But I thought I would come to understand why Sonia made that decision – at least from her point of view.
But the closest I came was summed up with this. “All her life, all of her thirty-five years, she’s only wanted to experience everything…”
Sonia is selfish, hedonistic, incredibly crude, critical of everyone except herself, verbally abusive and just not very interesting. Although I am sure she finds herself fascinating.
With such a main character, a book could still be interesting if the characters surrounding her were well drawn, layered…even just realistic. But the stereotypes here are just eye rolling. Upper-middle class entitled New York wives? Check. “Clarissa and Riva believed in their inheritances. They believed in staying home and shopping. They believed that they were their husbands’ wives and their children’s mother. And those who didn’t believe didn’t have the same God. Those who didn’t believe weren’t saved.”
The over nurturing to the point of creepiness Earth mother? Check. Gun loving and toting xenophobic mother? Check. Overworked husband who doesn’t understand his wife’s needs? Check.
This is a story about a woman who wants for almost nothing…and mostly wants what she can’t have. She wants to make no choices and every choice. She wants it all and none of it. Nothing seems to make her happy. Which makes for a very unhappy reader.
September 2, 2019
I don't remember what actually made me buy this book in the first place. But I'm glad it was only 6 bucks.
I'm not sure what I was expecting out of this book, but it just fell so flat for me.
The buildup to her leaving is just filled with these awkward interactions and her melting down. And then she seems to accept her pregnancy, and then freaks out again.
I understood Sonia's dilemma at first, of not wanting to feel trapped by motherhood, of wanting to regain herself. I even applauded her a bit for doing it. But it just felt like a random excuse for her to go and do whatever the hell she wanted, like have sex with random strangers, and drink and smoke pot for no reason.
She drifts along on this road trip, with even more random, awkward scenes with old friends, who are stuck in their same old boring states she left them in. Some of them are shells of their former selves, with creepy, sex hungry husbands.
The scene I was most confused by was the one where she ends up going to her old professor, saying that the trip was all about seeing him. He doesn't seem like such a great person, and not a reason to abandon your family for, especially when he finds her repugnant. The scene with him is supposed to be a realization for her, but I felt so little for her throughout, that the meaning was entirely lost on me, and I just didn't care.
And then she went back, just like he predicted, and it irritated me, because why the hell did you leave in the first place if you're just going to resign yourself to it in the end?
And I hated that she blamed her behavior on being pregnant. That's so cliche.
I think the only thing this book did for me was reaffirm my lack of desire to have children myself.
I'm not sure what I was expecting out of this book, but it just fell so flat for me.
The buildup to her leaving is just filled with these awkward interactions and her melting down. And then she seems to accept her pregnancy, and then freaks out again.
I understood Sonia's dilemma at first, of not wanting to feel trapped by motherhood, of wanting to regain herself. I even applauded her a bit for doing it. But it just felt like a random excuse for her to go and do whatever the hell she wanted, like have sex with random strangers, and drink and smoke pot for no reason.
She drifts along on this road trip, with even more random, awkward scenes with old friends, who are stuck in their same old boring states she left them in. Some of them are shells of their former selves, with creepy, sex hungry husbands.
The scene I was most confused by was the one where she ends up going to her old professor, saying that the trip was all about seeing him. He doesn't seem like such a great person, and not a reason to abandon your family for, especially when he finds her repugnant. The scene with him is supposed to be a realization for her, but I felt so little for her throughout, that the meaning was entirely lost on me, and I just didn't care.
And then she went back, just like he predicted, and it irritated me, because why the hell did you leave in the first place if you're just going to resign yourself to it in the end?
And I hated that she blamed her behavior on being pregnant. That's so cliche.
I think the only thing this book did for me was reaffirm my lack of desire to have children myself.
May 29, 2012
This is probably the first book about motherhood that I have been able to relate to. Sonia, the protagonist, discovers that, much to her dismay, she is unexpectedly pregnant with her third child. This pregnancy is especially burdensome as Sonia was finally expecting to make time for herself and her artistic ambitions. Fueled by confusion, dissatisfaction, and anger she embarks on a spontaneous roadtrip to retrace her life steps and along the way engages in such forbidden acts as casual sex, drinking, and smoking pot. Mainly, Sonia ponders how she can balance her personal satisfaction while also being a mother and a wife. She never finds total resolution or absolute answers, but the novel is nonetheless darkly funny and rings true (this is a review book so it isn't yet available for purchase.)
August 27, 2012
Paula Bomer is a dangerously original voice and a master of contemporary fiction. She carves out characters using an x-acto blade and places them in situations that will no doubt polarize the audience. You may love this book. You may not. But there's no denying the beauty of Paula's writing, and more importantly, the deep truths which it reveals. About love. About sex. About birth and parenthood and life itself. Not just one of the best books I've ever read, it's also the bravest.
January 16, 2014
Great book. Tough writing. Honest writing. Has all the pain and joy of life. Contains all the blood possible. No sleep walking-style wiring here. Enjoyed spending time with the narrator, a narrator who is human above all else and who fails and flails but keeps on fighting the good fight. More brutally powerful books like this please, universe.
July 2, 2012
While I could relate to a lot of the main character's feelings surrounding her unexpected third pregnancy and life as a mom, I felt that the behavior and dialogue was a bit unrealistic.
May 10, 2021
I just don’t get it. Am I meant to like these characters? Empathise? Understand? None of the above.
August 15, 2017
I hate to give this book a bad review, because I really enjoyed Bomer's short story collection "Inside Madeleine". However, "Nine Months" doesn't come close. There are sparks of her brilliance as a writer - especially the beginning of the novel, and the powerful last scene in the second-to-last chapter - but those were lost in overall chaos.
I still appreciate the concept of this book, very much so. It's what made me curious in the first place. There is a taboo surrounding unhappy mothers and it is important to speak and to write about that motherhood is not the peak of happiness and comes at the cost of absolute autonomy - at least in the way western women are used to it.
That said, Bomer's protagonist Sonia is mostly unbelievable in both her struggle, and her quest. Not only does she come across as a very childish, egocentric personality, but it's hard to believe her both a mother of two, as well as a manqué artist. How/Why would a woman like her be married-with-kids at all? And don't we all know the self-delusion of - "I wish I had time to paint, but ..."
What baffled and saddened me the most, though, was Sonia's immature dislike of anything Female. Be it her depreciatory thoughts on female toddlers (who are of course cunning and sneaky, not lively and real as boys) or the one-dimensional, derogatory portrait of all her mother-acquaintances. To me, it is a familiar adolescent notion: wanting to be "one of the guys", because women who have matured and embraced their femininity scare you. It made me wonder whether Bomer wanted to tell us something about Sonia; or whether it was her own subconscious bias coming through.
The two stars are for Bomer's writing, which is frequently shiny. She has a beautiful, lyrical sense for rhythm. I also enjoy her open handling of sexuality and I like reading her sex scenes. There is a dialogue towards the end that also merits at least two stars: When Sonia meets her old professor from art school, there is a lot transpiring. It might feel conceited in the face of all we've come to know about her. But after hundreds of pages of odd choices, it is refreshing.
I still appreciate the concept of this book, very much so. It's what made me curious in the first place. There is a taboo surrounding unhappy mothers and it is important to speak and to write about that motherhood is not the peak of happiness and comes at the cost of absolute autonomy - at least in the way western women are used to it.
That said, Bomer's protagonist Sonia is mostly unbelievable in both her struggle, and her quest. Not only does she come across as a very childish, egocentric personality, but it's hard to believe her both a mother of two, as well as a manqué artist. How/Why would a woman like her be married-with-kids at all? And don't we all know the self-delusion of - "I wish I had time to paint, but ..."
What baffled and saddened me the most, though, was Sonia's immature dislike of anything Female. Be it her depreciatory thoughts on female toddlers (who are of course cunning and sneaky, not lively and real as boys) or the one-dimensional, derogatory portrait of all her mother-acquaintances. To me, it is a familiar adolescent notion: wanting to be "one of the guys", because women who have matured and embraced their femininity scare you. It made me wonder whether Bomer wanted to tell us something about Sonia; or whether it was her own subconscious bias coming through.
The two stars are for Bomer's writing, which is frequently shiny. She has a beautiful, lyrical sense for rhythm. I also enjoy her open handling of sexuality and I like reading her sex scenes. There is a dialogue towards the end that also merits at least two stars: When Sonia meets her old professor from art school, there is a lot transpiring. It might feel conceited in the face of all we've come to know about her. But after hundreds of pages of odd choices, it is refreshing.
July 16, 2018
Though the subject of a dissatisfied mother is not a new one, Paula Bomer, once again, does it differently than anyone else. As in her later collection Inside Madeleine, she is here aware of the female body in graphic detail, an awareness that is constant whether she's describing pregnancy, sex, or childbirth. This doesn't prevent Nine Months from being clever, insightful, and often funny, but it does ensure these observations never feel detached from the physical experience of motherhood. Bomer is perhaps uniquely able to provide this sense—few authors of literary fiction can claim Best American Erotica 2003 as a publication credit—and it works to her advantage here, letting her craft a novel that is decidedly anti-sentimental without abandoning altogether the belief in the redemptive or transformative power of motherhood.
December 11, 2025
I need to make a shelf called Women-dominating-in-mens-fields or Lady-your-kid-is-4-its-too-late-to-abort. Kidding (sort of). This book reminds me a lot of Miranda July's All Fours except I did not hate the protagonist nearly as much. The plot is as follows: very horny pregnant lady runs away from home to visit old friends and bang strangers at truck stops while leaving her husband and two little kids at home. Okay, there's only one truck stop stranger but let's all agree that the acceptable level of truck stop banging is actually Zero. Luckily Sonia does not get kidnapped and goes on a two month road trip to visit old friends who mostly suck and ends up at an old mentor's house where the two of them have the exact sort of conversation about Art that makes people hate artists. Now, all that makes it sound like I didn't like the book which is not true at all. Actually the book is quite funny and while the protagonist is kind of a jackass, you cant help but to laugh at/with her.
July 20, 2019
This book was strangely relatable not because I’m married, or I have kids; nor do I know what is like to run away from said children and husband while being pregnant on a road trip to reclaim my personhood but because of the feeling you are not living up to life you wanted. Sonia embraces her fears and although most of her acts throughout the book are incredible self-destructive, she manages to become the deviant person she was all along.
April 25, 2018
Blunt, honest, fun + totally cringe-inducing. I can't say I loved Sonia (actually I often disliked her), but I enjoyed that she was so unlikable. She is an incredibly real character, and even among all the horrible shit she does, she's capable of real love + regret. It was a refreshing read at its best, and only guilty of an extreme, yet somehow still believable, main character at its worst.
April 24, 2018
Interesting premise and some lines were definitely the kind of truths you keep to yourself because you are embarrassed of how others would judge them. But most of the characters are nuts so conversation with them (which is all the book is) feels pointless. Also gratuitous sex and language
June 17, 2017
Not great. Not bad.
February 26, 2018
I hated every single character. But at least it was entertaining?
October 14, 2020
Quick read. Wasn't horrible. I thought I could relate until she takes off and acts like a crazy person.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 12, 2025
Oh my god. I've never read a book that captures the chaos of female hormones so precisely.
September 8, 2014
So, let me start off by clarifying something: I am not a mother. I can't make any claims whatsoever about how difficult pregnancy is and about how babies suck the life out of you. I can't.
However, I am a daughter, I'm about to turn 19 and I have a mother who shares more secrets and thoughts with me than I care to admit to the public. She's never lied to me about how hard motherhood is, she's never embellished her thoughts about pregnancy and adulthood for my own sake and, what's more, I know that she would never leave her children and go on a fucking road trip across the United Kingdom simply because she might, at some point in her life, feel depressed.
And I'm not saying this because I'm some silly teenager who lies to herself and tries to cover her eyes when she's supposed to face the harsh truths of life.
No, I'm saying this because I have the incredible luck of looking up to a good mother, a woman who has had her fair share of troubles in her life, who has gone through two pregnancies, who has had to make sacrifices and give up habits for the sake of family life, but she's also a woman who would never question, or even regret, the choices that have led her to be the person that she is now. Giving birth is not easy and, let's admit it, it's not for everyone. But once a woman decides to go on, rather than interrupting her pregnancy, then she doesn't have a choice but to take responsibility for the decision that she's made.
And the main character of Nine Months royally fails at that.
I have never encountered a character as unpleasant, irresponsible, childish and immature as Paula Bomer's Sonia. Into her late thirties, she's a woman who suddenly decides to pack her things, leave her husband and two little children and embark on a journey across America, having sex with random strangers, gulping down beer and getting high on weed.
Now, I wouldn't normally criticise this sort of reaction. I get it, unexpected pregnancy - if not pregnancy, in general - can really hit you in the guts and make you think through everything you've done up to that point with your life. You might be crushed under the weight of regret for all the things that you could have done but didn't, for all the possibilities that only come once in your life and that, now that you're about to give birth to a new human being, probably will never come again. As I've said, I get it.
What I don't get, however, is the fact that such a reaction should come from a thirty something year old woman, a mother of two little children, who has previously experienced pregnancy and who should by now be aware of the risks brought about by unprotected sex!
I mean, seriously, cut the crap and behave like a grown up, Sonia.
"And what's wrong with Sonia anyway, wanting to go out to bars at night? A married woman? Why would she want to do that?
Because she does. Because she just fucking does. She misses bars. She loved bartending. It was something, besides painting, that's she was good at."
Well, what's preventing you from painting? What's keeping you from pursuing your passions?
Having to take care of children is a big, a huge responsibility, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is going to annihilate you! You can be a good mother and have your exhibitions all at the same time!
I really tried to sympathise with Sonia, I tried so hard.
I tried to understand her anger and her frustration, only to end up becoming angry and frustrated myself.
You see, what I'm trying to get across here is that methods of contraception exist, they are there for us to use them. And I'm not against abortion, because I fully agree with the idea that a woman is the sole owner of her body and that she should do whatever she wants to do with it.
But, dear Sonia, once you decide to keep the baby, you have to be aware of the responsibilities and the duties that come with such a decision, including the fact that you should stay the hell away from alcohol and drugs! Her road trip did not make me sympathise with her issues in the least.
Rather than a depressed pregnant woman, Sonia feels more like an angsty teenager craving for attention and going from one extreme to the other, drinking beer and smoking weed, because she simply, fucking can!
However, I am a daughter, I'm about to turn 19 and I have a mother who shares more secrets and thoughts with me than I care to admit to the public. She's never lied to me about how hard motherhood is, she's never embellished her thoughts about pregnancy and adulthood for my own sake and, what's more, I know that she would never leave her children and go on a fucking road trip across the United Kingdom simply because she might, at some point in her life, feel depressed.
And I'm not saying this because I'm some silly teenager who lies to herself and tries to cover her eyes when she's supposed to face the harsh truths of life.
No, I'm saying this because I have the incredible luck of looking up to a good mother, a woman who has had her fair share of troubles in her life, who has gone through two pregnancies, who has had to make sacrifices and give up habits for the sake of family life, but she's also a woman who would never question, or even regret, the choices that have led her to be the person that she is now. Giving birth is not easy and, let's admit it, it's not for everyone. But once a woman decides to go on, rather than interrupting her pregnancy, then she doesn't have a choice but to take responsibility for the decision that she's made.
And the main character of Nine Months royally fails at that.
I have never encountered a character as unpleasant, irresponsible, childish and immature as Paula Bomer's Sonia. Into her late thirties, she's a woman who suddenly decides to pack her things, leave her husband and two little children and embark on a journey across America, having sex with random strangers, gulping down beer and getting high on weed.
Now, I wouldn't normally criticise this sort of reaction. I get it, unexpected pregnancy - if not pregnancy, in general - can really hit you in the guts and make you think through everything you've done up to that point with your life. You might be crushed under the weight of regret for all the things that you could have done but didn't, for all the possibilities that only come once in your life and that, now that you're about to give birth to a new human being, probably will never come again. As I've said, I get it.
What I don't get, however, is the fact that such a reaction should come from a thirty something year old woman, a mother of two little children, who has previously experienced pregnancy and who should by now be aware of the risks brought about by unprotected sex!
I mean, seriously, cut the crap and behave like a grown up, Sonia.
"And what's wrong with Sonia anyway, wanting to go out to bars at night? A married woman? Why would she want to do that?
Because she does. Because she just fucking does. She misses bars. She loved bartending. It was something, besides painting, that's she was good at."
Well, what's preventing you from painting? What's keeping you from pursuing your passions?
Having to take care of children is a big, a huge responsibility, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it is going to annihilate you! You can be a good mother and have your exhibitions all at the same time!
I really tried to sympathise with Sonia, I tried so hard.
I tried to understand her anger and her frustration, only to end up becoming angry and frustrated myself.
You see, what I'm trying to get across here is that methods of contraception exist, they are there for us to use them. And I'm not against abortion, because I fully agree with the idea that a woman is the sole owner of her body and that she should do whatever she wants to do with it.
But, dear Sonia, once you decide to keep the baby, you have to be aware of the responsibilities and the duties that come with such a decision, including the fact that you should stay the hell away from alcohol and drugs! Her road trip did not make me sympathise with her issues in the least.
Rather than a depressed pregnant woman, Sonia feels more like an angsty teenager craving for attention and going from one extreme to the other, drinking beer and smoking weed, because she simply, fucking can!
June 24, 2015
In Nine Months, a novel that begins at the end then takes us back to show how we got there, Paula Bomer puts her naughty nature as a writer up front. In the first paragraph alone, be prepared to read words like "bloated," "ripped and torn," and "yellowish-green umbilical cord." She puts "placenta" and "hurdles" in the same sentence. Of course, she wouldn't be Paula Bomer if she didn't. Or, maybe you won't be prepared for Nine Months, the novelization of the anti-mother, because you haven't read Bomer's collection Baby.
Meet Sonia, the lady who is married and pregnant (again—how inconvenient!) just when her two boys are getting out of diapers. Just when Sonia is about ready to take up painting again, like she did in college. Back when she used to sleep with her professors. Back when she was "someone." If Nine Months had a thesis, I dare suggest the book argues children make you old and no fun (fun is for individuals). Sonia's personality was so divided to me: one minute she's hugging her kids, the next minute she's giving them the stink eye. What does this mean? Is there no coinciding between mother and child? Must it be love or hate and never "you exist and I appreciate that, but I'm going to work you into my life, not make you my life"—Sonia doesn't seem to think so. Because Sonia is so flip-floppy in her attitude toward motherhood, you either love or hate her (just check the Goodread scores!).
But Bomer's book, both disgusting (hemorrhoids!) and funny (ahhh, masterbation), points out some deeply ingrained societal issues. Another mother ("educated, white, middle-class") points out that her youngest kid, a girl, "helps me pick up after the boys. She's just a baby, but she knows how to pick up. My boys don't, of course." Have these boy children no sense of self-pride? Sonia's friend tries to put Sonia's unexpected/unwanted pregnancy into a better light, suggesting this baby might be a girl: "Everyone needs a daughter...Who's going to take care of you when you get old? Your sons? I don't think so." Girls and woman: maids, wombs, sex providers. After giving her husband a blow job, he returns the favor to Sonia in the morning by picking up and making breakfast. "Why is this special," she asks, "Why don't you give me your best shot every morning? Why don't you feel any obligation around here? All I can say is, I'm never sucking your fucking dick again. You got that? Never." The points Bomer makes about expected gender divides are made clear without sounding preachy. Honest dialogue comes from Sonia on these topics, even when she sounds "bitchy." Sonia tries to figure out what it means to be a mother through her interactions with others, and everyone seems to lean toward female = self-sacrifice (whether a mother or not).
I'm sure other book reviews will describe how Sonia flees her family and goes on a road trip, ingesting drugs and having unprotected sex at a rest stop. But I think focusing on the fringe behaviors misses the big picture of the story. It's a rambunctious book, one that wants to cover a lot, but if you're only reading to find out how "naughty" Sonia is and how her husband will react/punish her (or how the reader would condemn her), then Nine Months will end on an empty note indeed.
Review originally published at JMWW.
I just read this and it made me think of the main character in Nine Months:
"It is a seductive position writers put the reader in when the create an interesting, unlikeable character--they make the reader complicit, in ways that are both uncomfortable and intriguing."--From Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Meet Sonia, the lady who is married and pregnant (again—how inconvenient!) just when her two boys are getting out of diapers. Just when Sonia is about ready to take up painting again, like she did in college. Back when she used to sleep with her professors. Back when she was "someone." If Nine Months had a thesis, I dare suggest the book argues children make you old and no fun (fun is for individuals). Sonia's personality was so divided to me: one minute she's hugging her kids, the next minute she's giving them the stink eye. What does this mean? Is there no coinciding between mother and child? Must it be love or hate and never "you exist and I appreciate that, but I'm going to work you into my life, not make you my life"—Sonia doesn't seem to think so. Because Sonia is so flip-floppy in her attitude toward motherhood, you either love or hate her (just check the Goodread scores!).
But Bomer's book, both disgusting (hemorrhoids!) and funny (ahhh, masterbation), points out some deeply ingrained societal issues. Another mother ("educated, white, middle-class") points out that her youngest kid, a girl, "helps me pick up after the boys. She's just a baby, but she knows how to pick up. My boys don't, of course." Have these boy children no sense of self-pride? Sonia's friend tries to put Sonia's unexpected/unwanted pregnancy into a better light, suggesting this baby might be a girl: "Everyone needs a daughter...Who's going to take care of you when you get old? Your sons? I don't think so." Girls and woman: maids, wombs, sex providers. After giving her husband a blow job, he returns the favor to Sonia in the morning by picking up and making breakfast. "Why is this special," she asks, "Why don't you give me your best shot every morning? Why don't you feel any obligation around here? All I can say is, I'm never sucking your fucking dick again. You got that? Never." The points Bomer makes about expected gender divides are made clear without sounding preachy. Honest dialogue comes from Sonia on these topics, even when she sounds "bitchy." Sonia tries to figure out what it means to be a mother through her interactions with others, and everyone seems to lean toward female = self-sacrifice (whether a mother or not).
I'm sure other book reviews will describe how Sonia flees her family and goes on a road trip, ingesting drugs and having unprotected sex at a rest stop. But I think focusing on the fringe behaviors misses the big picture of the story. It's a rambunctious book, one that wants to cover a lot, but if you're only reading to find out how "naughty" Sonia is and how her husband will react/punish her (or how the reader would condemn her), then Nine Months will end on an empty note indeed.
Review originally published at JMWW.
I just read this and it made me think of the main character in Nine Months:
"It is a seductive position writers put the reader in when the create an interesting, unlikeable character--they make the reader complicit, in ways that are both uncomfortable and intriguing."--From Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
December 13, 2012
I was looking forward to this novel. Since the moment Paula Bomer announced it, I had it on my wish list. I loved her collection Baby and other stories and I was expecting nothing less.
Of the entire novel the only paragraph I truly appreciated was the opening paragraph. My expectations were set at that level but then something happened, the same thing that plagues so many writers that desperately need the attention, she started to write with the purpose of shocking and she doesn't succeed.
She tells more than she shows, there is no insight to how the woman is really feeling and that was my biggest disappointment, it was so different from her short stories in which I did find that draining oppression of society upon mothers and their individual ambivalence towards it.
The story has its moments, and a few memorable lines, but most of the time, it's like she was afraid to go "all the way'" with the despise of the state of motherhood, so she covered it up with all these "shocking" actions like the pot smoking, the sex, the booze... none of it was believable. The attempts of showing the main character's love towards her children were not convincing, they seemed more like a justification, like avoiding the ultimate taboo: a woman could in fact not love her children.
The strongest writing comes from describing the physicality of a pregnant woman's body, as in her short story collection, those are the moments when her writing reaches the summit. It is enough to never want to be pregnant. It's enough to make one hate nature and its unfairness towards females.
It made me think of Eat Pray Love in reverse. Only this main character has a paid vacation across America in chain hotels as opposed to paid vacation in Italy and whatnot.
I am very interested in books about the "other side" of motherhood and this is the reason I bought this book directly, instead of getting it from the library, but damn it, I was disappointed.
Plus, nothing annoys me more than editing errors and there were quite a few typos and bizarre phrases that made no sense.
However, Baby and other stories still ranks very high in my 'unforgettable books' list.
(FROM HERE ON I'M JUST POSING QUESTIONS THAT CAN BE CONSIDERED SPOILERS)
Why did Clara disappear from the story?
Was Sonia's husband such an idiot that he just let her take all the savings and credit cards to pay for her tantrum?
How does a woman who really does not want to be pregnant react?
How much first world pain can there be in this book?
Will there ever be a novel that examines the fact that women in western countries can once and for all refuse to become mothers?
Why did she have to be an "art student"?
Why did she have to be an "art student" and a "groupie"?
Of the entire novel the only paragraph I truly appreciated was the opening paragraph. My expectations were set at that level but then something happened, the same thing that plagues so many writers that desperately need the attention, she started to write with the purpose of shocking and she doesn't succeed.
She tells more than she shows, there is no insight to how the woman is really feeling and that was my biggest disappointment, it was so different from her short stories in which I did find that draining oppression of society upon mothers and their individual ambivalence towards it.
The story has its moments, and a few memorable lines, but most of the time, it's like she was afraid to go "all the way'" with the despise of the state of motherhood, so she covered it up with all these "shocking" actions like the pot smoking, the sex, the booze... none of it was believable. The attempts of showing the main character's love towards her children were not convincing, they seemed more like a justification, like avoiding the ultimate taboo: a woman could in fact not love her children.
The strongest writing comes from describing the physicality of a pregnant woman's body, as in her short story collection, those are the moments when her writing reaches the summit. It is enough to never want to be pregnant. It's enough to make one hate nature and its unfairness towards females.
It made me think of Eat Pray Love in reverse. Only this main character has a paid vacation across America in chain hotels as opposed to paid vacation in Italy and whatnot.
I am very interested in books about the "other side" of motherhood and this is the reason I bought this book directly, instead of getting it from the library, but damn it, I was disappointed.
Plus, nothing annoys me more than editing errors and there were quite a few typos and bizarre phrases that made no sense.
However, Baby and other stories still ranks very high in my 'unforgettable books' list.
(FROM HERE ON I'M JUST POSING QUESTIONS THAT CAN BE CONSIDERED SPOILERS)
Why did Clara disappear from the story?
Was Sonia's husband such an idiot that he just let her take all the savings and credit cards to pay for her tantrum?
How does a woman who really does not want to be pregnant react?
How much first world pain can there be in this book?
Will there ever be a novel that examines the fact that women in western countries can once and for all refuse to become mothers?
Why did she have to be an "art student"?
Why did she have to be an "art student" and a "groupie"?
January 24, 2013
From the very first page of "Nine Months," the reader is immersed in the internal world of Sonia, a newly pregnant woman who already has two sons, ages 4 and 2. A Brooklyn housewife, she struggles against the dull sameness of her life. Having made some kind of peace with it, even hoping to resume her painting now that the boys are older, the unexpected pregnancy literally throws her for a loop, and from the very first weeks, the familiar nausea and hormonal imbalance add to the loss of equilibrium she feels and seemingly thrusts her into a war within.
What does Sonia do when the pregnancy advances and her ambivalence increases? Will the road trip she decides to take be like a personal odyssey for her, or some kind of escape from a life she is trying to cast off? Some might say she has abandoned her family, and even as Sonia herself seems to characterize it that way, at least in the beginning, I see it more as a woman's struggle to make sense of her life, while dealing with the physical aspects of pregnancy.
While most women would not take such a dramatic approach to self-examination, I believe that the character was trying to find her own truth.
That said, there were moments when she seemed quite unbalanced, and perhaps the physical changes were insufficient to explain what Sonia is experiencing. Her emotional health seems off kilter as well. Is she questioning the choices she has made? Or is she simply acting out from selfishness or boredom?
For those who have never experienced what Sonia has, or questioned their lives in the middle of it, this book would definitely not be one you could connect to. In some ways, Sonia's journey seemed over the top, but at the end, I couldn't help but wonder if she had to take matters to this extreme to finally find her way.
Four stars.
What does Sonia do when the pregnancy advances and her ambivalence increases? Will the road trip she decides to take be like a personal odyssey for her, or some kind of escape from a life she is trying to cast off? Some might say she has abandoned her family, and even as Sonia herself seems to characterize it that way, at least in the beginning, I see it more as a woman's struggle to make sense of her life, while dealing with the physical aspects of pregnancy.
While most women would not take such a dramatic approach to self-examination, I believe that the character was trying to find her own truth.
That said, there were moments when she seemed quite unbalanced, and perhaps the physical changes were insufficient to explain what Sonia is experiencing. Her emotional health seems off kilter as well. Is she questioning the choices she has made? Or is she simply acting out from selfishness or boredom?
For those who have never experienced what Sonia has, or questioned their lives in the middle of it, this book would definitely not be one you could connect to. In some ways, Sonia's journey seemed over the top, but at the end, I couldn't help but wonder if she had to take matters to this extreme to finally find her way.
Four stars.
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