A Review of Ainslie Hogarth's "Motherthing"

Ainslie Hogarth’s Motherthing is, well, something. Told alternately from sort of stream-of-conscious first person and prose set as stage directions and dialogue, the highly odd and unreliable narrator, Abby, relates her experience with the death of her mother-in-law and the resulting fall-out in her relationship with her husband.

Right from the beginning, you know that Abby is a little unhinged. She finds the idea of filling a hot tub with diarrhea amusing, and an old cookbook is her bible. We learn later she had an abusive and neglectful mother, and she wanted to connect with her husband Ralph’s mother, but that woman too was inaccessible. Abby finds solace in a client at her long-term care home, but that relationship is a little backward. Abby calls Mrs. Bondy her baby. And there is nothing Abby wants more than a baby with her perfect husband. However, Ralph is pulled into a deep depression by the suicide of his mother and her (maybe?) consequent haunting of the couple. A psychic tells Abby what she must do to heal Ralph, but the act is over the top. Will Abby be able to save her husband before he falls to the same demons as his mother?

Squeamish. I think that is the best word to describe how I felt reading the majority of this story. The details about filth, bodily functions, cooking... They all leant to a general gut disagreement with the story. The author deserves accolades for creating something visceral in that sense. Abby, too, is fascinating, as I spent most of the book just judging how accurate my perception of her was going to be by the end. How crazy is she, really? To what level will she rise? How much of this is delusion or fantasy and how much is real? Hogarth has done something interesting with Motherthing. It’s definitely worth a read.

I received a copy through NetGalley for my review.