Thursday, August 17, 2023

BOOK REVIEW: M IS FOR MOTHER - AN UPLIFTING READ

 My Rating: 5 of 5 stars *****

'M is for Mother' is a honest and refreshing outpour of the author's journey of motherhood from pre conception to post birth. The author Alexandra Antipa takes us through the ups and downs and the highs and lows we all have to embrace. 

This book has been a serendipity for me. I  had communicated to Alexandra that I am a slow reader and I think with that pace of reading, the book saw me move through some unexpected turbulent phases as a parent and by the time I finished it, I had entered into a state of calmness. During these tumultuous days, I had constantly been reading the book even though it was at snail's pace and I could feel the book talking to me.



My book copy is replete with many highlights that I have made where I loved the way the author has crafted the sentences, the way she has managed the emotional outpours as beautiful literary embellishments, the courage she has put up to stand apart from the crowd while standing up for what she thought was right based on raw convictions, even when it could never get her approvals from her own blood. The author truly deserves praise for these. I will be revisiting these highlights to relish the experience again.

In particular the courage and conviction to reexamine the author's relationship with her own mother and to not follow her parent's footsteps, but to make her own road that is relevant for her child, is commendable. The silent ownership she takes as a mother is loud all over the book. 

As a father, I could appreciate the journey of a woman in much more depth and that way the respect for my mother and my wife has multiplied. Alexandra dissects the concept of sacrifice and beautifully positions motherhood in relation to it. I loved the realism she has naturally spiced up the book with in multiple places, through the raw portrayal of the vulnerability of being imperfect and how it's perfectly fine to be so. 

Her journey almost touches on a dichotomy at places when on one side she goes all out to give everything for her daughter as a mother and at the same time she is hit with random realizations of her own journey of life as an individual, what she yearns for, what all she believes have been lost into the oblivion forever and then how beautifully she comes to terms with these to move forward as a human.

I highly recommend this book for those who are about to wear the hat of a parent and for new parents. Best wishes Alexandra!!

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