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Surrendering to Motherhood {Book Review}

March 27th, 2012 | Add a Comment

Surrendering to Motherhood: Losing Your Mind, Finding Your Soul by Iris Krasnow

Book reviews are few and far between for me, and quite honestly, this is the first non-blog-related book I’ve read in nearly a year. I picked it up from the library after reading an interview with the author, Iris Krasnow, that piqued my curiosity. After reading it, I knew I had to share.

From the book jacket: “Surrendering to Motherhood is the story of one woman’s search for spiritual fulfillment and personal identity that takes us along on her climb higher and higher on the career ladder, which only leaves her feeling emptier and emptier. After coming of age with the women’s liberation and the sexual revolution the author finds emancipation at last in the Zen of running a houseful of children.”

As a mother who has struggled from day one with the pull between career and home, Krasnow’s memoir really hit home for me. The book starts off a bit slowly, with the background of her search for self and her rising career. But, as she begins to build a family, the pace picks up (funny how family does that) and the revelations roll from the pages quickly. I identified not only with the author’s struggle to define her sense of self, but also with her concerns about religion and mortality, her sudden recognition that family and marriage can sometimes battle one another, and her final embrace of her role as a mother to three rowdy boys.

In true journalistic fashion, Krasnow weaves in “supporting references” from her many interviews with famous people, including Queen Noor, Yoko Ono, and Ted Kennedy. She also cites passages from several different books on everything from Zen, Feminism, and Parenting-how-to. Krasnow recognizes that she has more choices than many mothers in today’s society, and while the book is centered on a tale that ultimately ends with her being a stay at home mom, the main point of her writing is about finding ways to be in the moment whether you stay home or work, to enjoy mothering small children even if it can be mind numbing, to take ownership over the most important, if not the most flattering or prestigious job we’ll ever have: Motherhood.

Visit Iris Krasnow’s website here to learn more about this book as well as her more recent works.