The Nursery is an intoxicating psychological novel which revolves around one woman's experience of the birth of her first child, nicknamed 'Button'. The path of motherhood doesn't always run smoothly, especially in the case of our narrator whose child tore into her life with a biological violence. What transpires from this wounding birth is our unnamed narrator experiences a crippling loss of her own identity. Her sense of self becomes fragile as society labels her simply as a 'mother' above all else. She no longer feels like her own person, she belongs fully to this small human, her firstborn child.
The Nursery bears the question: 'Is motherhood supposed to feel like this?'
Paired with the use of an unnamed narrator, I feel that many parents, especially first-time parents, will be able to see some of themselves in our protagonist's stream of consciousness, giving them a sense of understanding that there are others out there who don't just take to parenthood like a duck to water. The Nursery is a touching, spellbinding and poignant novel that has countless powerful moments with quotes that will make you stop, think and at times, fully identify with the words present on the pages. The Nursery is a brilliant piece of psychological literary fiction, a short yet charged novel with great layers and depth.
Review by Danielle.
The Nursery was published on 04/05/23 by Oneworld.
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