Amazon.com Review
Book Description
Behold, brave readers! Herein lies the first epic hero’s journey told by a mother—the Hausfrau, whose odyssey is a 24/7 adventure of pandemonium, sleep deprivation, madness, and transcendence. But beware! This journey is not for the faint of heart, as Nicole Chaison (a.k.a. the Hausfrau) boldly demonstrates in this brilliantly witty and vivid graphic memoir. The Hausfrau weaves a tale of sidesplitting trials and addresses age-old questions: Does a good mother have to give up her own dreams? What is a good mother, anyway? And is there a bathing suit that will fit her gargantuan behind?
• the Björn Conspiracy: Can a mother go to the bathroom with a slumbering newborn tethered to her chest?
• Monsterfrau moments: Hell hath no fury like a sleep- and serotonin-deprived Hausfrau.
• the Unhip Mama: Piercings, spiky hair, and tattoos do not a trendy mama make.
• a Hausfrau Holiday Bake-off: yet another portrait Norman Rockwell forgot to paint.
Behold, brave readers! Herein lies the first epic hero’s journey told by a mother—the Hausfrau, whose odyssey is a 24/7 adventure of pandemonium, sleep deprivation, madness, and transcendence. But beware! This journey is not for the faint of heart, as Nicole Chaison (a.k.a. the Hausfrau) boldly demonstrates in this brilliantly witty and vivid graphic memoir. The Hausfrau weaves a tale of sidesplitting trials and addresses age-old questions: Does a good mother have to give up her own dreams? What is a good mother, anyway? And is there a bathing suit that will fit her gargantuan behind?
And so the journey unfolds, illuminating all things mommy, including
• The Laborynth: an intricate maze of hormones, exhaustion, and ego struggles.• the Björn Conspiracy: Can a mother go to the bathroom with a slumbering newborn tethered to her chest?
• Monsterfrau moments: Hell hath no fury like a sleep- and serotonin-deprived Hausfrau.
• the Unhip Mama: Piercings, spiky hair, and tattoos do not a trendy mama make.
• a Hausfrau Holiday Bake-off: yet another portrait Norman Rockwell forgot to paint.
Fiercely funny, wholly original, and sure to be recognizable to mothers everywhere, The Passion of the Hausfrau is filled with the messiness, meltdowns, mayhem, and bliss of modern motherhood.
Amazon Exclusive Essay: Nicole Chaison on The Passion of the Hausfrau
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From Publishers Weekly
In a book that bills itself as both illuminated manuscript and hero's journey, we see a writer/mother whose craft has slipped away from her as her two children have taken over her life. The story is written in prose with black and white drawings accompanying the text, and it grew out of Chaison's zine, Hausfrau Muthuh-zine The author tells her tale with high-spirited energy, drawing on multiple sources in order to portray her journey through motherhood and back into writing. This is no dreary maternal tale; it's a journey every bit as adventurous, thrilling and pitfall-laden as any male hero's. Faithful to her influences, Chaison's chapter headings include quotes from Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces, while each page of text is bordered by cartoon illustrations with dialogue. This technique is enjoyable but suffers when the illustrations serve not, in fact, to illuminate the text but merely to repeat it. While fitting to the subject of motherhood, this style's run-on sentences, footnotes and constant references to books, films and pop culture icons can weigh down the story, while the constant stream of self-deprecation and cutesy language sometimes undercuts the wonderful foundation of motherhood as hero's journey. (June)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
