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Motherline
You know those days in a family--weddings, funerals, births--when everyone comes together and all that history and garbage fester and boil and sometimes explode?
Well, this is one of those days. Maggie is in labor.
When the first contractions ripple across her belly, she has no idea what to expect. She knows what she wants. She wants that perfect birth from the movies, with her family gathered around, welcoming her baby, helping her become the perfect mother.
More than anything, though, she wants her mother to be there for her, but relationships between mothers and daughters are often complicated.
Her husband Sam would do anything for Maggie, but as their families converge on the hospital for this birth, he can't keep the craziness at bay.
Through a series of flashbacks, as well as events in the labor room, Maggie digs more deeply into her painful past. Memories bubble to the surface, forcing her to re-examine the tragic accident that killed her baby brother. Relationships between mothers and daughters are often complicated. But in order to learn what it means to be a mother, Maggie finally has to face her own mother, and find a way to both forgive and be forgiven.
Well, this is one of those days. Maggie is in labor.
When the first contractions ripple across her belly, she has no idea what to expect. She knows what she wants. She wants that perfect birth from the movies, with her family gathered around, welcoming her baby, helping her become the perfect mother.
More than anything, though, she wants her mother to be there for her, but relationships between mothers and daughters are often complicated.
Her husband Sam would do anything for Maggie, but as their families converge on the hospital for this birth, he can't keep the craziness at bay.
Through a series of flashbacks, as well as events in the labor room, Maggie digs more deeply into her painful past. Memories bubble to the surface, forcing her to re-examine the tragic accident that killed her baby brother. Relationships between mothers and daughters are often complicated. But in order to learn what it means to be a mother, Maggie finally has to face her own mother, and find a way to both forgive and be forgiven.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
About the author
Lisa Rosen
2 books29 followersAfter a peripatetic childhood, Lisa Rosen stayed in one place long enough to raise two children, but now that they’ve flown the coop, she and her husband have given up the settled life and are traveling full-time. She writes stories about difficult families and beautiful places, inspired by their adventures.
She has a PhD in literature from the University of North Carolina, as well as a suitcase and a laptop.
She has a PhD in literature from the University of North Carolina, as well as a suitcase and a laptop.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 8, 2014
Joanne Harris, the popular British author has quoted about mothers;
"Children are knives, my mother once said. They don’t mean to, but they cut. And yet we cling to them, don’t we, we clasp them until the blood flows."
Lisa Rosen's new novel, Motherline weaves a tale about being a mother for the first time, about the transition from being a daughter to being a mother and also about love and forgiveness. With Lisa's strong words and vivid story-telling, this tale has become more beautiful, delectable and thoroughly provoking.
Thanks to Lisa Rosen, the author, for providing me with a copy of Motherline, in return for my honest feedback.
Maggie is past her nine-months due date and has become very irritated and frustrated. Firstly, she has planned her whole labor and delivery program with her family standing close-by. Instead her strained relationship with her own mother is making it harder for her to become a mother. Fortunately, Maggie is very close to her grandmother, Yaya and she wants her baby to meet her grandmother. As Maggie goes into labor, her idea of a baby bringing her family closer, is now becoming a distant dream. Maggie is in a sorry state, since her idea of a normal family has started to sound fictitious to her and she falls into the flashbacks of her childhood memories when her own mother had failed to take the responsibilities of a good mother.
This is a very personal and intimate tale of a young expectant woman, whose so called perfect delivery journey has started to take the toll on her. This tale also shows the readers about how to forgive and forget about the past and if not done, it might forever haunt us. I really enjoyed it, given the fact that Lisa has so thoroughly and vividly written about Maggie's labor pain and strain. From reading Motherline, it is quite evident that Lisa is a quite a skilled and talented author. The way she has woven the tale of this young woman, will definitely make you keep turning the pages of the book till the very end. The characters of Maggie, Yaya, Katherine, Sam are so well-developed and it is almost like you can relate to Maggie's turmoil and pain.
Certainly a good book that you want to gift it to your mother since so many raw emotions about a mother and a daughter are touched upon.
"Children are knives, my mother once said. They don’t mean to, but they cut. And yet we cling to them, don’t we, we clasp them until the blood flows."
Lisa Rosen's new novel, Motherline weaves a tale about being a mother for the first time, about the transition from being a daughter to being a mother and also about love and forgiveness. With Lisa's strong words and vivid story-telling, this tale has become more beautiful, delectable and thoroughly provoking.
Thanks to Lisa Rosen, the author, for providing me with a copy of Motherline, in return for my honest feedback.
Maggie is past her nine-months due date and has become very irritated and frustrated. Firstly, she has planned her whole labor and delivery program with her family standing close-by. Instead her strained relationship with her own mother is making it harder for her to become a mother. Fortunately, Maggie is very close to her grandmother, Yaya and she wants her baby to meet her grandmother. As Maggie goes into labor, her idea of a baby bringing her family closer, is now becoming a distant dream. Maggie is in a sorry state, since her idea of a normal family has started to sound fictitious to her and she falls into the flashbacks of her childhood memories when her own mother had failed to take the responsibilities of a good mother.
This is a very personal and intimate tale of a young expectant woman, whose so called perfect delivery journey has started to take the toll on her. This tale also shows the readers about how to forgive and forget about the past and if not done, it might forever haunt us. I really enjoyed it, given the fact that Lisa has so thoroughly and vividly written about Maggie's labor pain and strain. From reading Motherline, it is quite evident that Lisa is a quite a skilled and talented author. The way she has woven the tale of this young woman, will definitely make you keep turning the pages of the book till the very end. The characters of Maggie, Yaya, Katherine, Sam are so well-developed and it is almost like you can relate to Maggie's turmoil and pain.
Certainly a good book that you want to gift it to your mother since so many raw emotions about a mother and a daughter are touched upon.
August 24, 2013
If you are a recently new mother processing your own birth story and trying to permanently etch each detail in your mind, this is the book for you. Rosen takes us on a journey with her main character, Maggie, through natural childbirth with her first child. Intertwined with this birth story are memories of tragic family history and the pains and divides that were born from those events. Somehow, between contractions, Maggie is compelled to rehash it all in a final battle for answers and closure before she carries those ghosts into the next generation. The visceral details will make you recall the pangs of your own child's birth while both the tensions and love between mothers and daughters will bring mist to your eyes. The threads that forever bind mother to child are often a tangled mess and Rosen slowly picks and untangles those for Maggie in her first novel.
October 15, 2013
I received this book from Goodreads First Reads Giveaway and could not put it down. Lisa Rosen's Motherline is a well written beautiful story that explores the deep-rooted angst of first time mother, who struggles to define motherhood while examining the complicated and often distant relationship with her mother. I recommend this book to everyone.
October 9, 2013
Lisa Rosen's debut novel, Motherline, is an intimate study of a day in the life of Maggie, a young woman who is about to become a first-time mother. The book traces both her physical struggle in giving birth as well as her emotional struggle to work through her own insecurities about impending motherhood.
Rosen is an expert wordsmith. Her skilled use of detailed imagery puts the reader in the delivery room, allowing her to feel everything Maggie's going through. Hell, I thought _I_ was having a baby. Rosen also paints vivid flashbacks that fill in the holes of Maggie's family history. She especially excels in the sections featuring Maggie as a little girl.
All in all, a strong first effort.
Rosen is an expert wordsmith. Her skilled use of detailed imagery puts the reader in the delivery room, allowing her to feel everything Maggie's going through. Hell, I thought _I_ was having a baby. Rosen also paints vivid flashbacks that fill in the holes of Maggie's family history. She especially excels in the sections featuring Maggie as a little girl.
All in all, a strong first effort.
October 19, 2013
This was a great book! I was "hooked" in the first chapter, which I loved. The book is very well written and so descriptive I felt like I was Maggie at times. I would definitely recommend it!
October 9, 2013
Let's talk about the elephant in the room: There are no aliens or robots in this book. Not even a little bit.
What IS in this book is a lot of great imagery, even if it's difficult to read about at times. What I really appreciate about Rosen's writing is that she paints such a vivid image in your head that it makes it easy to visualize every agonizing moment for Maggie, even those moments that deal with emotional pain versus physical. A good book teases emotions out of you, even those we'd sometimes rather avoid, and that's exactly what you get with Motherline. Really well done.
What IS in this book is a lot of great imagery, even if it's difficult to read about at times. What I really appreciate about Rosen's writing is that she paints such a vivid image in your head that it makes it easy to visualize every agonizing moment for Maggie, even those moments that deal with emotional pain versus physical. A good book teases emotions out of you, even those we'd sometimes rather avoid, and that's exactly what you get with Motherline. Really well done.
September 12, 2017
This book had a somewhat of a personal connection to me that is hard to put into words.
I can definitely say that one of the best qualities of this book is how very REAL it felt.
A very relate-able book for woman of all walks of life. Women who have felt the pain, the fear, and the joy of childbirth AND motherhood, who have had the unfortunate experience of losing a child (at any stage of life or development), and/or who has struggled with the relationship to their own mother.
I can definitely say that one of the best qualities of this book is how very REAL it felt.
A very relate-able book for woman of all walks of life. Women who have felt the pain, the fear, and the joy of childbirth AND motherhood, who have had the unfortunate experience of losing a child (at any stage of life or development), and/or who has struggled with the relationship to their own mother.
September 22, 2018
i received this book for free from Goodreads Giveaways. An interesting tale of a pregnant young woman with many unresolved issues from her youth. As she goes through labor, these issues rise up and she finds resolution for them.
October 31, 2013
Trade Paperback/ISBN: 9780989370103
Maggie and Sam are about to have their first child. Maggie is already passed her nine month due date and is feeling impatient and frustrated and is having trouble sleeping. She is worried, not knowing what to expect when she goes into labour. She is also worried about screwing up as a mother and even wonders to herself if babies can explode if you don’t burp them properly.
Maggie is excited at the prospect of her new baby meeting her ninety-three-year-old grandmother, Yaya. Not every child is lucky enough to have a great-grandmother. Her relationship with her own mother, Katharine is strained after her Mom had fallen apart when Maggie was young and pulled herself away from the demands of being a mother to her and her sister, Dara.
Katharine has appeared to be more distant than usual since Maggie got pregnant – “a secret disappointment to Maggie, who had hoped the pregnancy might deepen their relationship.” Maggie has no idea about how to strengthen and bridge the gap between them.
As Maggie labours she becomes more and more upset about what she perceives as the lack of people caring for her and about her as she goes through this pain. She is annoyed that her mother has yet to show up at the hospital while she is struggling through the pain and wants her family around her but all she has is Sam and his mother. All she wants is to “have a baby, and have a nice, normal family that would show up and be excited for me.”
I felt so sorry for Maggie throughout the story. She made it so much harder on herself to struggle through labour worrying and questioning herself about her family, or lack of. We all wish and want a “normal” family but unfortunately that doesn’t always work out. Sometimes we have to accept what we have and move on as best we can.
I absolutely loved Motherline and read it in one day. I just couldn’t put it down. I was so engrossed in the novel that I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.
Motherline is a story about families, mothers and daughters, deep soul searching, forgiveness, love, and acceptance. This is one story that all mothers and daughters would enjoy regardless of what type of relationship they share.
Lisa Rosen is a great author and I’m so looking forward to her second book which, hopefully, will be out sometime in 2014.
Maggie and Sam are about to have their first child. Maggie is already passed her nine month due date and is feeling impatient and frustrated and is having trouble sleeping. She is worried, not knowing what to expect when she goes into labour. She is also worried about screwing up as a mother and even wonders to herself if babies can explode if you don’t burp them properly.
Maggie is excited at the prospect of her new baby meeting her ninety-three-year-old grandmother, Yaya. Not every child is lucky enough to have a great-grandmother. Her relationship with her own mother, Katharine is strained after her Mom had fallen apart when Maggie was young and pulled herself away from the demands of being a mother to her and her sister, Dara.
Katharine has appeared to be more distant than usual since Maggie got pregnant – “a secret disappointment to Maggie, who had hoped the pregnancy might deepen their relationship.” Maggie has no idea about how to strengthen and bridge the gap between them.
As Maggie labours she becomes more and more upset about what she perceives as the lack of people caring for her and about her as she goes through this pain. She is annoyed that her mother has yet to show up at the hospital while she is struggling through the pain and wants her family around her but all she has is Sam and his mother. All she wants is to “have a baby, and have a nice, normal family that would show up and be excited for me.”
I felt so sorry for Maggie throughout the story. She made it so much harder on herself to struggle through labour worrying and questioning herself about her family, or lack of. We all wish and want a “normal” family but unfortunately that doesn’t always work out. Sometimes we have to accept what we have and move on as best we can.
I absolutely loved Motherline and read it in one day. I just couldn’t put it down. I was so engrossed in the novel that I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.
Motherline is a story about families, mothers and daughters, deep soul searching, forgiveness, love, and acceptance. This is one story that all mothers and daughters would enjoy regardless of what type of relationship they share.
Lisa Rosen is a great author and I’m so looking forward to her second book which, hopefully, will be out sometime in 2014.
January 31, 2015
Lisa Rosen's husband Lee sent me a free copy of the book, I presume because he saw birth listed as one of my interests on Twitter. I was very keen to read the book and as others have said, I found it hard to put down, reading it over just a couple of nights.
Whether intentional or not, Lisa did an excellent job of conveying what a hospital birth is really like, how de-humanizing it can be, and the feeling that birth happens TO you, instead of being something you DO. For me it stirred a lot of memories of difficult experiences I had during my own less-than-ideal hospital birth (my first baby). I also thought she wrote an accurate portrayal of what it feels like to be post-dates... the waiting, the waiting.
What I didn't like -- and this is completely subjective -- I just couldn't relate to the presentation of labour as endless, agonizing pain. I hope this is simply because I have been "lucky" to have shorter labours that were quite manageable to me. Recognizing that labour and birth are absolutely affected and coloured by fear, anxiety, expectations, and cultural knowledge, I found it interesting to ponder whether the labour was described in certain ways because it truly was very painful, or because Maggie had so many unresolved worries and was primed for it to be the worst pain of her life going into it. Again, I'm not sure whether this was an intentional decision on Rosen's part -- maybe she based the labour descriptions on her own births, or maybe they were a composite of cultural stereotypes, or something else entirely? -- but it was an interesting thing for me to debate in my mind.
I found the fishing trip scene to be particularly poignant, along with the part where Maggie and her mother finally talk about Jamie's death.
I enjoyed the book and will probably read it again. Overall an excellent first book, and I'd read more of Lisa's work in the future.
Whether intentional or not, Lisa did an excellent job of conveying what a hospital birth is really like, how de-humanizing it can be, and the feeling that birth happens TO you, instead of being something you DO. For me it stirred a lot of memories of difficult experiences I had during my own less-than-ideal hospital birth (my first baby). I also thought she wrote an accurate portrayal of what it feels like to be post-dates... the waiting, the waiting.
What I didn't like -- and this is completely subjective -- I just couldn't relate to the presentation of labour as endless, agonizing pain. I hope this is simply because I have been "lucky" to have shorter labours that were quite manageable to me. Recognizing that labour and birth are absolutely affected and coloured by fear, anxiety, expectations, and cultural knowledge, I found it interesting to ponder whether the labour was described in certain ways because it truly was very painful, or because Maggie had so many unresolved worries and was primed for it to be the worst pain of her life going into it. Again, I'm not sure whether this was an intentional decision on Rosen's part -- maybe she based the labour descriptions on her own births, or maybe they were a composite of cultural stereotypes, or something else entirely? -- but it was an interesting thing for me to debate in my mind.
I found the fishing trip scene to be particularly poignant, along with the part where Maggie and her mother finally talk about Jamie's death.
I enjoyed the book and will probably read it again. Overall an excellent first book, and I'd read more of Lisa's work in the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 14, 2016
This book “hooked” me in the first chapter and I have a very hard time putting it down.
Maggie and Sam are about to embark into the world of Parenthood. Maggie is already overdue and is worried about what to expect when going into labor, will labor hurt, will she screw up being a mother, etc.
Maggie is very close with her 93 year old grandma named Yaya and can’t wait for her baby to meet Yaya. The thing that worries on her mind the most is the strained relationship she has with her mother Katherine. She stops at her house one day to pick up some rose bushes and get a note her mother wrote her stating she is putting the house up for sale. All Maggie wants is to have her mother in the delivery room with her to share in this special day and to be excited to become a grandmother.
I felt very sorry for Maggie while reading this book. All Maggie wants is a “normal” family. This books is one all mothers and daughters would enjoy.
The author hit on some tough subjects of love, acceptance and forgiveness. I give this book a 5 star rating.
Maggie and Sam are about to embark into the world of Parenthood. Maggie is already overdue and is worried about what to expect when going into labor, will labor hurt, will she screw up being a mother, etc.
Maggie is very close with her 93 year old grandma named Yaya and can’t wait for her baby to meet Yaya. The thing that worries on her mind the most is the strained relationship she has with her mother Katherine. She stops at her house one day to pick up some rose bushes and get a note her mother wrote her stating she is putting the house up for sale. All Maggie wants is to have her mother in the delivery room with her to share in this special day and to be excited to become a grandmother.
I felt very sorry for Maggie while reading this book. All Maggie wants is a “normal” family. This books is one all mothers and daughters would enjoy.
The author hit on some tough subjects of love, acceptance and forgiveness. I give this book a 5 star rating.
January 29, 2014
Interesting story about how things can get jumbled up in a family and it takes something like a new baby to bring people together so they can sort out the misunderstandings and heal some wounds that shouldn't have been there in the first place. Just "very real" and nicely written about what goes on in that birthing room and how a "Mom" is always there when she's needed just as she should be!! Great writing and a great story!
August 16, 2013
Sometimes you just have to experience something on your own, no books can prepare you completely. Unfortunately you forget what was in the manual and the real life event smacks you in the face. O.K. Maggie, tell us your story.
November 9, 2013
Enjoyable read…vivid and well-paced…family dynamics to which we can all relate!
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews