A review by tumblehawk
Book of Mutter by Kate Zambreno

4.0

Written and abandoned and revisited and arranged and completed over the course of thirteen years, in this book of lyrical fragments Kate Zambrenonattempts to make sense of her mother’s death. Facts are squirrelly, nested inside rumination and reflection, tucked between examinations of artists such as Henry Darger and Louise Bourgeois and (an artist in her own way) Joan of Arc. The facts seem less important than the way of thinking that’s represented on the page. The grasping. The cycling. Real grief shit. Though on the heady Maggie Nelsonesque side of things. Reminded me, too, of the more recent The White Book by Han Kang, which I feel sure looked to The Book of Mutter for inspiration.