The Passion of the Hausfrau

May 25, 2009
In a book that bills itself as both illuminated manuscript and hero's journey, we see a writer/mother whose craft has slipped away from her as her two children have taken over her life. The story is written in prose with black and white drawings accompanying the text, and it grew out of Chaison's zine, Hausfrau Muthuh-zine
The author tells her tale with high-spirited energy, drawing on multiple sources in order to portray her journey through motherhood and back into writing. This is no dreary maternal tale; it's a journey every bit as adventurous, thrilling and pitfall-laden as any male hero's. Faithful to her influences, Chaison's chapter headings include quotes from Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces
, while each page of text is bordered by cartoon illustrations with dialogue. This technique is enjoyable but suffers when the illustrations serve not, in fact, to illuminate the text but merely to repeat it. While fitting to the subject of motherhood, this style's run-on sentences, footnotes and constant references to books, films and pop culture icons can weigh down the story, while the constant stream of self-deprecation and cutesy language sometimes undercuts the wonderful foundation of motherhood as hero's journey.

May 1, 2009
Expanding on her triannualself-published magazine, Hausfrau Muthahzine, Chaison offers a humorous and incredibly detailed look at the roller-coaster demands of motherhood. She recounts childbirth, nursing, childhood illnesses, sleep deprivation, and manic multitasking, all in the midst of renovation of the familys three-story Victorian. She had planned to be a writer until motherhood consumed her. But when a former classmate (a high-school jock who went on to football fame) authors a biography (with help from a writer and life coach), Chaison took the plunge by starting a journal. Her book uses quotations and headings from Joseph Campbells work of comparative mythology, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, as the frame for the unglamorous and perceived unheroic perspective of the average housewife. Gothic lettering combined with comic book drawings alongside standard text make the book visually and verbally engaging. Women who likewise feel unheralded for all they do will enjoy this hilarious look at the housewife and mother; men might learn something, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)