I read the book Matrescence in two days. It was as though I was reading a thriller, I really couldn’t put it down. I felt a compulsion to keep reading that I hadn’t felt in years. It is a book about motherhood, written by Lucy Jones, but more than that, it’s a book about metamorphosis. You don’t need to be a mother to find it utterly captivating, and yet it is clearly a book that will make those who have given birth feel specifically seen.
It’s a book about change, transition and how we become new people with each and every catalytic event we go through in life. I loved this honest book which reads as part-memoir part-science/nature writing — on what actually happens to the human female body and psyche pre-, during and post- birth.
The book feels incredibly fresh and radical — many books are written about motherhood but this is the only book I’ve read thus far that zooms intimately into the personal memoir aspect and zooms out to see the bigger animal-kingdom territory and beautifully captures the way in which women break apart and are put back together again anew. It made me see my friends who are mothers in a new brutal and beautiful light, and it made me want to spotlight these honest conversations between women no matter what stage of life we are at.
I hope you enjoy this episode with Lucy. We talk about writing, motherhood, creativity, child-like wonder and how to keep a fresh perspective on the world.
Articles we mention in the podcast:
— Lucy’s book Matrescence (out now in paperback)
— My book A Year of Nothing
— Elena Ferrante talks to Marina Abramović
— Motherhood is no threat to creativity, author Zadie Smith says
— Don’t Play With Your Kids - New York Times
How do we embrace childlike wonder?