"Timely and evergreen, engaging and infuriating, personal and universal—a necessary reintroduction to some of fiction''s most familiar mothers." —Cecile Richards, bestselling author of Make Trouble and former president of Planned ParenthoodA smart and engaging look at fifteen classic novels that have shaped our cultural notions of motherhood. Sweet, supportive, dependable, selfless. Long before she had children of her own, journalist Carrie Mullins knew how mothers should behave. But how? Where did these expectations come from—and, more importantly, are they serving the mothers whose lives they shape? Carrie''s suspicion, later crystallized while raising two small children, was that our culture’s idealization of motherhood was not only painfully limiting but harmful, leaving women to cope with impossible standards––standards rarely created by mothers themselves.To discover how we might talk about motherhood in a more realistic, nuanced, and inclusive way, Carrie turned to literature with memorable maternal figures for answers. Moving through the literary canon––from Pride and Prejudice and Little Women to The Great Gatsby, Beloved, Heartburn, and The Joy Luck Club—Carrie traces the origins of our modern mothering experience. By interrogating the influences of politics, economics, feminism, pop culture, and family life in each text, she identifies the factors that have shaped our prevailing views of motherhood, and puts these classics into conversation with the most urgent issues of the day. Who were these literary mothers, beyond their domestic responsibilities and familial demands? And what lessons do they have for us today—if we choose to listen?

A harrowing, redemptive coming-of-age journey from youthful innocence to the darkest levels of addiction and human experience.When tragedy strikes her family, seventeen-year-old Marie Massey runs away from a safe, privileged life in her small college town and into the arms of a much older man in a neighboring Kentucky county. Though innocent at first, Marie’s budding relationship with the charismatic, thirty-year-old Bobo Owens and his family of bootleggers and drug dealers sets in motion a cataclysmic chain of events from which no one will emerge unscathed.In this stark reflection of the many challenges rural young people face in the heart of the opioid epidemic, debut novelist Carrie Mullins presents a haunting narrative about the ways addiction can destroy American communities.Published in 2016 by Old Cove Press

"Timely and evergreen, engaging and infuriating, personal and universal—a necessary reintroduction to some of fiction''s most familiar mothers." —Cecile Richards, bestselling author of Make Trouble and former president of Planned ParenthoodA smart and engaging look at fifteen classic novels that have shaped our cultural notions of motherhood. Sweet, supportive, dependable, selfless. Long before she had children of her own, journalist Carrie Mullins knew how mothers should behave. But how? Where did these expectations come from—and, more importantly, are they serving the mothers whose lives they shape? Carrie''s suspicion, later crystallized while raising two small children, was that our culture’s idealization of motherhood was not only painfully limiting but harmful, leaving women to cope with impossible standards––standards rarely created by mothers themselves.To discover how we might talk about motherhood in a more realistic, nuanced, and inclusive way, Carrie turned to literature with memorable maternal figures for answers. Moving through the literary canon––from Pride and Prejudice and Little Women to The Great Gatsby, Beloved, Heartburn, and The Joy Luck Club—Carrie traces the origins of our modern mothering experience. By interrogating the influences of politics, economics, feminism, pop culture, and family life in each text, she identifies the factors that have shaped our prevailing views of motherhood, and puts these classics into conversation with the most urgent issues of the day. Who were these literary mothers, beyond their domestic responsibilities and familial demands? And what lessons do they have for us today—if we choose to listen?

A harrowing, redemptive coming-of-age journey from youthful innocence to the darkest levels of addiction and human experience.When tragedy strikes her family, seventeen-year-old Marie Massey runs away from a safe, privileged life in her small college town and into the arms of a much older man in a neighboring Kentucky county. Though innocent at first, Marie’s budding relationship with the charismatic, thirty-year-old Bobo Owens and his family of bootleggers and drug dealers sets in motion a cataclysmic chain of events from which no one will emerge unscathed.In this stark reflection of the many challenges rural young people face in the heart of the opioid epidemic, debut novelist Carrie Mullins presents a haunting narrative about the ways addiction can destroy American communities.Published in 2016 by Old Cove Press