Customer Reviews

The Passion of the Hausfrau: Motherhood, Illuminated

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Passion of the Hausfrau: Motherhood, Illuminated

Let me just say this: You don't have to be a parent to love The Passion of the Hausfrau. I am not a mother, but Nicole Chaison's laugh-out-loud graphic memoir speaks to me, too. The book documents Chaison's life as a mother and lapsed writer as she delves into the deepest parts of herself and returns to the world a creator of art as well as children.

I suppose it is true that my pets are my children. Just after I got The Passion of the Hausfrau, a new kitten came into my life. She was perfect in every way; except for the parasites. I plummeted to the depths of despair when the giardia and coccidia found their ways into my other two cats' gastrointestinal systems and I had to capture all three cats twice a day and force two syringes full of nasty medicine down their throats. And then I read the "Pestilence" segment from Chaison's "Road of Trials," in which our heroic Hausfrau faces a parasite of her own: lice. Just reading it made my life better. The next day, carrying my once feral cat by the scruff (so I wouldn't get scratched) into the "treatment room" (the bathroom), I thought, Okay, the Hausfrau has dealt with a pestilence just as terrible, if not more so--and she made it funny.

Kinda put things into perspective.

The book is funny. But it is also brilliant. Chaison has written (and illustrated!) perhaps the first work of literature that puts the experience of motherhood in the framework of the archetypal hero's journey. Using Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces as her guidebook, and medieval illuminated manuscripts as her inspiration, Chaison's journey--from Departure to Initiation to Transition to Return--is a feminist revelation. Moms are heroes, too!

If you're a mother, or ever have been, or a father, or ever have been, or even if you've never been a parent at all, do yourself a favor and buy this book. It will make your life better. And it will warm the cockles of your heart.

The Passion of the Hausfrau takes the graphic novel medium to a new level. The text is cleverly interlaced with beautiful drawings that look straight out of an illuminated manuscript. The stories are hilarious, and by the end of the book, you really do understand that raising two kids (and writing a book about it) is a heroic task. My favorite scene though is the story of the maggots in the child's car seat. Buy it! Read it!

I saw this book recommended on the Soulemama blog and promptly ordered it. I read it in about two days, which is a real accomplishment with 3 small babes! I can't say enough about this book... I couldn't stop laughing!!

This book is fantastic. I was already a fan of Chaison's 'zine, so this book serves as a kind of "best of" and a work of its own. I love that it takes the form of the 'hero's journey' and it is a must-read for all my mama friends.

With a lot of hilarious insights and the fortitude to withstand the outrageous audacities that life and parenthood throw at you, Nicole Chaison lives The Passion of the Hausfrau. She's got a great sense of humor, which goes without saying, of course, which is best demonstrated from the very beginning of the book, in which the author learns, via an awkward present from her own mother, that a former high-school classmate has written a book.

Not just any book, and not just any former classmate. The book is, as Chaison points out many, many times in her book, Romo: My Life on the Edge: Living Dreams and Slaying Dragons by football player Bill Romanowski with Adam Schefter and Phil Towle. How did that book inspire The Passion of the Hausfrau? Chaison has wanted to write one of her own for years, and if everyone else is getting to do it, why hasn't she? That's the impetus, and it's a good one, because it keeps her hilariously charged up and righteously angry (but in a good way) throughout most of the book.

Chaison tackles all the tough questions of motherhood, starting with pregnancy and then delivery. That Chaison herself has a very awkward and idiosyncratic relationship with her mother informs many of her own decisions regarding parenthood; her desire to be unique, young, and hip while raising two kids also plays into it. That The Passion of the Hausfrau never devolves into boring poor-me angst or saccharine-sweet schmaltz is a tribute to Chaison's cynicism (again, in a good way) and biting wit. Because she never gets too sentimental, she's able to make this book, her memoir of "Motherhood, Illuminated," work well.

The format of the book is interesting as well, seeing as it's a melding of prose and comics. Calling it a comic is not exactly right, either. Spot illustrations tend to flesh out the situations that have been described more thoroughly in the prose. The illustrations are sometimes sequential, sometimes not, so even the most basic definition of what constitutes a comic doesn't quite apply. Since the book is also heavily footnoted, getting the complete story involves a series of jumps from one spot to another. The prose breaks oddly on every page (apparently to keep the prose from getting too far ahead of the footnotes and illustrations that go along with it), often leaving lots of white space. No matter. This is all part of the inherent design of the book.

As such, The Passion of the Hausfrau is probably not going to win new converts to the comics format. Instead, it fits well into the new way of thinking from so many readers today: That whether it's prose or comic, it's a book, and either way is a fine way of telling a story.

-- John Hogan

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read about motherhood. I laughed so hard my husband kept asking me what as so funny. Her wit and dissection of the family unit are perfect. Nicole's drawings also add a lot of humor to the book. If you are in need of a good guffaw (who isn't?), "The Passion of the Hausfrau: Motherhood Illuminated" is the book for you.

Christine
[...]

The Passion of the Haufrau is everything you could ask for. Hysterically funny and full of insightful intelligence (for both men and women, no less), it describes, sometimes in excruciatingly human detail, the risks one woman takes in order to birth and raise her two children. Often sacrificing both ego and identity just to make it through one more day of motherhood, Nicole Chaison brings the reader alongside as she tackles, among other subjects, biology ("Monsterfrau! or Hell Hath No Fury Like a Hausfrau with No Serotonin"), social science ("My Descent into the Realm of People Who Need to Be Severely Punished"), fashion ("How it Came to Be That I Tried to Squeeze My Enormous Ass into Brazillian Surfing Shorts"), the self ("I'm Not Kathy! My Name Is Mommy!") and pornography ("Another Friday Night Shabbat Party"). Using an ingenious and easy-to-follow amalgam of illustration, prose and extensive footnotes, the Hausfrau's passion for her family shines forth from the author's tales of what it takes and what it really means to be a modern mother.

Definitely clever and laugh-out-loud funny. I wasn't charmed, however, as the humor depends mostly on irony, unpleasantness and mishaps, imparting a lingering negativity when I was looking for something to inspire and raise spirits. On the other hand, it does consistently remind us that our miseries could be worse! Occasionally crude language might offend some sensibilities. I decided it wasn't a book I'd recommend or want in my library and am glad I could return it for a refund.