Close Menu
  • Home
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Links
  • MER Journal
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Subscribe to MER!
  • MER ONLINE
    • MER Quarterly
    • MER Literary Folios
    • Poetry
    • Fiction
    • Creative Prose
    • Essay
    • Craft
    • Interviews
    • Book Reviews
      • Bookshelf
    • Authors’ Notes
    • Art Gallery
      • Special – Hybrids
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Poem of the Month
    • Events
      • MER 18 Virtual Reading – Voices From HOME
    • Currents
      • Announcements
      • Highlights
  • Shop
    • All Issues
    • One Year Subscription
    • Two Year Subscription
  • Submit
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
MER – Mom Egg Review
Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube Tumblr Threads
  • Home
    • About
    • Masthead
    • Links
  • MER Journal
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Subscribe to MER!
  • MER ONLINE
    • MER Quarterly
    • MER Literary Folios
    • Poetry
    • Fiction
    • Creative Prose
    • Essay
    • Craft
    • Interviews
    • Book Reviews
      • Bookshelf
    • Authors’ Notes
    • Art Gallery
      • Special – Hybrids
  • News & Events
    • News
    • Poem of the Month
    • Events
      • MER 18 Virtual Reading – Voices From HOME
    • Currents
      • Announcements
      • Highlights
  • Shop
    • All Issues
    • One Year Subscription
    • Two Year Subscription
  • Submit
NEWSLETTER
MER – Mom Egg Review
You are at:Home » Motherlunge by Kirstin Scott

Motherlunge by Kirstin Scott

0
By Mom Egg Review on October 3, 2013 Book Reviews

motherlungsReview by Suzanne Kamata

– What a voice! With her dark sense of humor and her lively, inventive prose, Kirstin Scott, author of the award-winning Motherlunge, can make even the most mundane aspects of suburban life – recycling, for instance – totally compelling.

At the heart of the narrative is Thea, a hopeful young woman raised by an unreliable mother, and her dazzling older sister, Pavia, who is pregnant. When Thea’s boyfriend decides to take a break from their relationship, and Pavia decides to leave her adoring new husband, Thea moves in with her sister to help out. But this brief summary hardly does the book justice.

Scott has a flair for dialogue and finding the perfect detail and delightful digressions. She alternates between the story of Thea’s highly dysfunctional family and sardonic snippets of advice from a mother to a daughter. I constantly found myself wanting to call up a friend to read passages of this book out loud or share lines on Twitter. For example: “First, everyone says As Long as She’s Healthy. Then, As Long as She’s Happy. As if these are modest hopes, reasonable bargaining points in a negotiation with management. That’s All We Ask! I’ll tell you truthfully, my darling: these are too much to ask for. I’m sorry.”

Motherlunge is wistful, wise, and funny – and not to be missed.

Motherlunge by Kirstin Scott
(New Issues, 2013)
254 pages, paperback, $15.00


Suzanne Kamata is the author of Gadget Girl and Losing Kei; editor of Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs (Beacon Press, May 2008) and Call Me Okaasan: Adventures in Multicultural Mothering (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing, 2009). Visit www.suzannekamata.com.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
Previous ArticleNicelle Davis on Becoming Judas
Next Article Looking Up Harryette Mullen by Barbara Henning
Leave A Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

August 1, 2025

Mothersalt by Mia Ayumi Malhotra

August 1, 2025

Girlfriend by Barbara Henning

August 1, 2025

It’s No Fun Anymore by Brittany Micka-Foos

August 1, 2025

Monster Galaxy by Cindy Veach

July 31, 2025

MER Poem of the Month – August 2025

July 20, 2025

Sarah Lightman – Biblical Women Ageing Disgracefully

July 16, 2025

MER Submissions Closed – Thanks for sending work!

July 12, 2025

MER Bookshelf – July 2025

July 6, 2025

Commodore Rookery by Christy Lee Barnes

July 5, 2025

Landed: A Yogi’s Memoir in Pieces & Places by Jennifer Lang

Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram YouTube Tumblr Threads
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Submit
  • Contact
MER - Mom Egg Review
PO Box 9037, Bardonia, NY 10954
Contact [email protected]

Copyright © 2025 MER and Mom Egg Review

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.