Motherlunge

by Kirstin Scott

Overview

MOTHERLUNGE is an eloquent and irreverent debut novel about first sex, true love, chronic sibling rivalry; it’s about the deepest fear of young (and not-so-young) adulthood: the fear of inheriting a disappointing life. It’s motherly advice, too—featuring wigs, dogs, road trips, and medicine—a guide to the essential experiences of being female, “born unto a librarian, named for the goddess of sight,” waiting for the future to arrive. With sly wit and surprising joy, MOTHERLUNGE considers the flaws in the family line and celebrates the promise that staggers alongside.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781936970117
Publisher:	New Issues Poetry and Prose
Publication date:	01/08/2013
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

KIRSTIN SCOTT'S stories have appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, Sonora Review, Western Humanities Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.

What People are Saying About This

Don Lee

“Told with dazzling prose, Motherlunge is a wry, luminous exploration of the legacy of motherhood—here, about the afflictions that may cycle through generations. This is a thoroughly engaging novel, with wonderful turns of phrase in every sentence, and its witty humor announces a welcome new voice in American fiction, full of charm and tender wisdom.”

Editorial Reviews

According to writer Don Lee, who selected Scott as the winner of the 2011 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Prize, her book explores “the legacy of motherhood” and the “afflictions that may cycle through generations.” That’s true as far as it goes, but Lee’s a far better judge than blurber: Scott’s debut is about likable, uncertain Thea and her beautiful sister, Pavia, about having and not having a child and having and not having a mother. It’s about making decisions and not making decisions and the way these, plus luck, good and bad, become your life. And it’s about pleasure—ours, as we listen to Thea tell her unborn daughter about sex and love and sorrow, and what happened when she left her small Montana town to go to the big city and help out the pregnant Pavia. Finally, as we come to understand, it’s about the decision, as Thea puts it, to “not not know.” Funny and smart, and told in the first person, this is the kind of debut novel that’s often assumed to be autobiographical. Whether it is or isn’t, in Thea and those around her Scott has created characters we believe in and wish well, characters who feel real—strange and sad and happy, like real people are. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

Funny and smart…in Thea and those around her Scott has created characters we believe in and wish well, characters who feel real—strange and sad and happy, like real people are.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

—

From the Publisher