Making Babies

December 12, 2011
In Enright’s only work of nonfiction, the Man Booker Prize–winning Irish author (The Gathering) describes what it’s like to become a mother at 37, 18 years into her marriage. The narrative veers from the hilarious (“Martin looks at me over the back of his chair. He gives me a thumbs-up, as if to say, ‘Isn’t this a blast? And there’s football on the telly!" At 9.35 and 20 seconds I am, for the first time, in serious pain”) to the brutally honest (“I never liked being around nursing women—there was always too much love, too much need in the room”) to pure wonder—not so much at the miracle of the baby itself (although that is certainly present), but that she is a mother. And that she isn’t half bad at it. In fact, she’s good at it. The reader might wonder why she’s so surprised at all this until the last chapter. And then we realize that this book, above all, is about the redemptive power of having children: by the end of the memoir, she is finally “completely happy.”

January 15, 2012
A dryly humorous memoir/guidebook about pregnancy, childbirth and motherhood by the Man Booker Prize-winning Irish novelist. Enright (The Forgotten Waltz, 2011, etc.) was married to her husband for nearly 20 years before they decided to have children. Having always assumed, vaguely, that she would be a mother, she first wanted to focus on her writing career. Divided into several-dozen short chapters, the book offers dispatches from the frontlines of first-time parenthood. Enright gracefully moves between straight facts, disarmingly funny admissions, her own unexpected revelations and experiences and conversational second-person directives. In "Babies: A Breeder's Guide," the author organizes the narrative into categories that include "Home Birth," "Naming," "Burps, Burp!, Burp!," "Evolution" and "How to Panic," to name a few. Throughout, Enright displays a great sense of humor, calling to mind two similarly themed memoirs: Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions (1993) and Rachel Cusk's A Life's Work (2002). Enright's conclusions are far more optimistic than Cusk's, but she shares Lamott's talent for drawing the reader fully into her writing with her frank and comic tone. She's equally honest about the difficult, boring aspects of becoming a parent, although Enright's humor works better than her seriousness. While she doesn't shy away from revealing vibrant detail the traumas and upheavals involved in pregnancy and parenthood, it's her talent for elevating otherwise menial complaints into universal truths that makes the book compelling. Fans of Enright's novels and short stories, especially parents or those contemplating parenthood, will be interested in her perspective. A winning and witty take on a well-covered topic.

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March 1, 2012
Enright, an Irish Catholic writer, married and childless for 18 years, grew up at the time of women fighting for procreative rights. She'd always had an enduring love for children, but she and her husband, a playwright, couldn't quite commit themselves to taking the plunge. When in middle age they finally did, she discovered there is no other time in a woman's life when she is so supported and praised and helped and loved. She found herself in the middle of the sweetest, quietest romance, thrilled by everything about childbirth and motherhood, from amniotic fluid smelling like tea to 4 a.m. breast-feedings to constant crying. After the birth of each of her two children, she spent the precious hours when they napped writing dispatches on the joys and mundanities of motherhood. This collection of essays is wry and funny and touching and sure to bring back good and not-so-good memories for readers who have experienced the same but lacked the words to describe it all.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)