Customer Reviews

GUARDING THE MOON

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

'Guarding the Moon' is a wonderful book about how joyous and enrapturing motherhood and babies are. Those who found this book "hilarious" or "terrible" apparently don't understand the obsession a woman can have with loving her child, when she has desired one for a long time. If you're looking for a book with nothing but cutsie anecdotes about stinky diapers and complaints about waking up in the middle of the night with a child, then you shouldn't read this book.

With only a quick glance at the title, GUARDING THE MOON: A Mother's First Year, it is easy to imagine Francesca Lia Block's latest book as a guide for parents of newborns. But inside the cover is instead a beautiful, poetic and often brutally honest memoir of a first time mother's love for her baby and a record of her journey to self-love and emotional fulfillment.

GUARDING THE MOON is a chronicle of Block's first year of motherhood: her joys, fears, anxieties and discoveries. Beginning at the moment she gives birth --- when she welcomes her daughter into the world --- and ending with the baby's first birthday, this slender volume is intimate and powerful. Block always wanted children, but barriers seemed to meet her at every turn. When she brings her healthy baby to term, after previously miscarrying, the responsibility she feels for her daughter (both physical and emotional) is overwhelming and awesome --- as overwhelming and awesome as if she had been chosen to guard the moon.

While, for the most part, the book is about one woman's emotional, physical and spiritual reaction to becoming a mother, it is also about community and family. Block is supported in her first year as a mother by her loving husband and mother, surrounded by friends and adored by her two dogs. All of them contribute to her experience and story.

Still, at the center of this literary celebration are Block and her daughter, also affectionately known as Babela, Kewpie, Moon Girl and Girly-Swirl, to mention just a few pet names. In the beginning, they are dependant on each other as frame of reference; the mother is the baby's world, the baby is the mother's moon. But, over the course of the year, they both begin to expand their universe. The baby faces new challenges and the mother begins to explore new personal possibilities and even imagines more babies. Each grows stronger and wiser.

GUARDING THE MOON is really about creation and transformation --- the creation of one life and the transformation of another. Block shares much of her own troubled emotional past, her feelings of self-doubt and eating disorder. Becoming a mother does not erase or change the things that made her sad in the past, but it does give her a new and healthier perspective. Her body, once a vessel of pain and self-scorn, is now a giver and sustainer of life, loved unconditionally by her daughter.

Just in time for Mother's Day, Block's book is a perfect gift. And, while it does discuss the mundane details that are included in most parenting books, such as diapers, lack of sleep and baby food, it also discusses family dynamics, marital intimacy, unexpected pleasures and pains of motherhood --- all written like a love letter, reading like a poem. GUARDING THE MOON is incredibly intimate and intensely spiritual. It is a unique contribution to parenting books and an important one. Block does not speak for all new mothers but shares her story in such a moving way that makes it highly readable and recommendable.

--- Reviewed by Sarah Egelman

If you're familiar with FLB's books and her writing style, you will thoroughly enjoy this book. I enjoyed her frank honesty about the way some new mothers can obsess about all the important and seemingly unimportant things about their babies. This book does a great job of expressing her growing into her own skin as a new mama.

This is a beautifully written book. I read it obsessively from cover to cover, in one sitting. It is so familiar to what I feel for my little girl. It is absolutely lyrical, delightful. I highly recommend, especially for those who can appreciate the experiences AND the writing!

"Guarding The Moon" did not surprise me in its beautiful lyrical content which is not unlike that of Block's previous novels. However, this book does take on a different note and feeling to it because it is non-ficiton. Block writes about her babies first year, including the joy of giving birth as well as the changes and adaptions that take place within herself, her family, and of course her baby. More then anything this book is the authors self-song of praise to the birth and life of her daughter. Having a first child makes a woman feel things and think things she hadn't imagined she'd feel or think and Block captures this rather accurately in a series of moments centering around the impact of her baby on her life. While Block explains the hardship that can come with having a new baby, she continuously emphasizes the joy and beauty of having a new spririt in her life.

At first when I heard about this book, I didn't think it'd be as good as her others because it wasn't fiction, but being that Francesca Lia Block is my favorite author, I bought it anyway. I read the whole thing last night, and I don't have any problem admitting that I was completely wrong about my first assumption. This book is her best yet. It's so touching the way she talks about her daughter and her new life as a mother. It's deffinately a book you want to own a copy of.

You should probably know that I'm a bit biased about this book, because Francesca Lia Block is, in my opinion, the most amazing author ever. So of course I devoured _Guarding the Moon_ in less than 24 hours, and found every page delicious. Block meditates on life with her new daughter using the same gorgeous language that made me fall in love with her fictional characters. Even as someone who *never* wants children, I couldn't help but be moved by Block's love for her daughter.

The book, like Block's others, is beautiful, even as some parts are very sad. If you've read her other works, you've no doubt wondered about which of the themes (dead & dying fathers, eating disorders, etc.) Block had pulled out of her own life. This book answers some of those questions and is a beautiful testament of a mother's love for her daughter.

Come with Francesca Lia Block as she embarks upon her first year as a mother, told with the raw awe-inspired language of a new parent in her GUARDING THE MOON.

Lyrical, like a lullaby, this author's astonishment & joy of at last giving birth to a living child, & all the wonder that first year unfolds.

Beautifully expressed. A delight!

Probably my favorite motherhood book, Guarding the Moon is achingly tender, gorgeously written, and shimmery with Block's unique sensibility. I bought two copies, just in case one wears out!

I have been a Francesca Lia Block fan for a while and I hadn't bought this book because I'm not a mom so I didn't think I'd be able to relate. I was so wrong. Her poetic style translates just as well in to non-fiction as it does in fantasy. Her insight into motherhood is so deep and touching. I would encourage anyone to buy this book.