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A review by sam8834
Human Blues by Elisa Albert
4.0
This left me conflicted. I actually finished it a while ago and have been struggling over what to say about it. It's far from a perfect novel, but it contributes to the conversation about pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood with ideas I had never considered.
Aviva is a semi-successful musician who travels a lot and seems to have a solid hold on her artistry and image. She desperately wants to have a baby, but has more or less come to the realization that she may be infertile, and she's pretty strongly opinionated against fertility treatments. This hang-up that she can't seem to get over feels ridiculous and overblown, at times, and if we're talking about unlikeable narrators, she often has some shitty things to say about women who go the IVF route. But I found myself also wanting to sympathize with her perspective, a view I hadn't really thought about before. I suppose that opposing technological intervention in conception isn't an uncommon belief, but it was interesting to see it play out through the eyes of a woman who wants to have a kid and can't without fertility assistance. What to do from there?
The result is this novel, a wandering, plot-less book about reproductive expectations of women and the performance of pregnancy and motherhood. What I loved most about this is that it subverts the traditional idea of what a mother "should" look and be like. Aviva is a brash musician who tours and stans Amy Winehouse and, while obsessed with wanting a baby, doesn't voice a whole lot of reasons <i>why</i> she wants one. You don't typically think of this type of person as someone who strives for motherhood, and I often wondered why she wanted this...or if it was something she really did want. Which is perhaps my bias showing, due to a lifetime of being conditioned to believe mothers were a certain type of person who behaved a certain type of way (i.e. it would absolutely be possible for her to have a baby and continue to write music and tour, especially with a husband would could likely stay home with the kid). But it was refreshing, to see a woman like Aviva on the journey to motherhood.
The book is way too long. I'm all about a novel that's just vibes, but this went past that. I otherwise enjoyed it and will think about it for a while and look forward to more from Albert.
Aviva is a semi-successful musician who travels a lot and seems to have a solid hold on her artistry and image. She desperately wants to have a baby, but has more or less come to the realization that she may be infertile, and she's pretty strongly opinionated against fertility treatments. This hang-up that she can't seem to get over feels ridiculous and overblown, at times, and if we're talking about unlikeable narrators, she often has some shitty things to say about women who go the IVF route. But I found myself also wanting to sympathize with her perspective, a view I hadn't really thought about before. I suppose that opposing technological intervention in conception isn't an uncommon belief, but it was interesting to see it play out through the eyes of a woman who wants to have a kid and can't without fertility assistance. What to do from there?
The result is this novel, a wandering, plot-less book about reproductive expectations of women and the performance of pregnancy and motherhood. What I loved most about this is that it subverts the traditional idea of what a mother "should" look and be like. Aviva is a brash musician who tours and stans Amy Winehouse and, while obsessed with wanting a baby, doesn't voice a whole lot of reasons <i>why</i> she wants one. You don't typically think of this type of person as someone who strives for motherhood, and I often wondered why she wanted this...or if it was something she really did want. Which is perhaps my bias showing, due to a lifetime of being conditioned to believe mothers were a certain type of person who behaved a certain type of way (i.e. it would absolutely be possible for her to have a baby and continue to write music and tour, especially with a husband would could likely stay home with the kid). But it was refreshing, to see a woman like Aviva on the journey to motherhood.
The book is way too long. I'm all about a novel that's just vibes, but this went past that. I otherwise enjoyed it and will think about it for a while and look forward to more from Albert.