Random Things Tours: Small. On Motherhoods by Claire Lynch

 ´How odd it is, to feel grateful that a man you haven´t meet has produced exemplary sperm´.

Writing about motherhood is underrated. Indeed, why one would love to write and find people to read about such a private, life-wrecking experience? My honest answer is because motherhood(s) are so different, as different as the humans writing their own motherhood stories.

This story starts with the moment a woman decides - consciously or not - of having the baby. All the adjustment taking place into her life and her body, the interactions and even the smallest life decisions - like what to eat, wear and buy - are from now on preset. We may not know or talk too much about it, but that´s how it is. Motherhood follows its own secretive ways. Always.

Small. On Motherhoods, the outstanding debut by Claire Lynch was for me such a literary revelation. I rarely think or write about my own motherhood. Not because I don´t think it is worth doing it, but because I am so much stuck into the process that I cannot see clearly out of it. I am still lacking that clarity for making assumptions and uttering whole paragraphs about it. But books like Small can do it.

Written in a poetic modernist style, the book reflects the long journey that Lynch started, together with her female partner for having their own baby. From finding the right donor to adjusting to the life after, all is done in small steps. Everything is small first. The babies too. 

Besides the particular experience she is sharing - which is not necessarily singular, as there are so many single women or female same-sex couples being in similar situations - the writing itself is the best choice for reflecting such a complex phenomenon. It genuinely embraces the complexity of the phenomenon, without failing in the dramatic trap. It is as natural as the life flow but without diminishing the complexities. 

In fact, you don´t even have to be a mother to understand this book. You just need to be open to embrace the story of a different experience and learn from it. 

Small, indeed, but so relevant and poignant.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered part of a book tour, but the opinions are, as usual, my own