The Mother Zone: Love, Sex, and Laundry in the Modern Family

by Marni Jackson

Nights of no sleep, steeped in equal parts love, resentment and bodily fluids. The most intense tenderness warring with the deepest despair. The biggest question on a new mother’s mind: WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME IT WOULD BE LIKE THIS? Marni Jackson’s touching, funny and provocative journey through the terra incognita of motherhood will help you survive it and won’t let you forget. Ten years after its first publication, The Mother Zone is still fresh, still original, still the one book that every mother (and father) needs.

Genres: Nonfiction, Parenting

277 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 1992

About the author

A Toronto writer who has won numerous National Magazine Awards for her features, humour and social commentary, Marni Jackson is the author of three nonfiction books: “The Mother Zone”; “Pain: The Science and Culture of Why We Hurt” and “Home Free: The Myth of the Empty Nest”. The bestselling “Mother Zone” was nominated for the Stephen Leacock Award, and her book on the nature of pain was a finalist for The Writers’ Trust Pearson Nonfiction Prize.

Marni’s stories have appeared in The Walrus, Brick, Eighteen Bridges, Toronto Life, Explore, Saturday Night, Outside, Rolling Stone, The London Times, Utne Reader, and others. Formerly the book/publishing columnist for Globe & Mail and a senior editor at The Walrus. Longtime association with the Banff Centre, where she served as Rogers Chair of the Literary Journalism program, and is on the faculty of the Mountain and Wilderness Writing Program. Creative writing instructor at Ryerson, Banff and U. of Guelph/Humber College. She is a member of the Al Purdy A Frame Association, which is restoring the poet’s Prince Edward County A Frame as a writer’s retreat.

Reviews

[Marla · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that I needed as a new(ish) mother and I loved it. I still do, as it takes me back to the moments when mothering was so fresh and raw, and reminds me how lucky I am. Marnie Jackson hits all the right marks; it is funny, profound, smart and touching. It is a book that I give to many new(ish) mothers.

[Robert Welsch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book--the best book about the experience of mothering my wife has come across. She made me read it--and I'm very glad she did. It is well written, full of honesty and insights, and gave me a new understanding of what mothers go through.

[Dorothy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thoughtful, honest memoir about motherhood

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

honest and well told.

[Leanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It is easy, so easy, to drown in family, inch by cozy inch." p.237.

This book threw me a rope when I needed it most.