by Lucy Ellmann
First published 2022
In her Ohio kitchen, a mother tends to her children and husband while her mind flows through the relentless stream of contemporary life. She bakes countless pies and cinnamon rolls as thoughts cascade from headlines to babies, from fears to hopes, from Hollywood musicals to animal welfare concerns. Medical insurance mingles with chili recipes. Preparationists and pandemic threats occupy the same mental space as active shooters and childhood memories. Her pets share attention with teenage daughters, climate change, and Trump. The absence of her own mother haunts these domestic rhythms. This woman exists immersed in the ceaseless narrative of the present, a polyphonic and contradictory account that structures a world of many worlds. These realms remain largely irreconcilable, blind to each other's existence yet condemned to coexist. Through her consciousness, the inexhaustible confusion of American and Western culture unfolds as both colossal challenge and epic narrative achievement.
Genres: domestic-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: domestic, stream-of-consciousness
Setting: Ohio
Period: Contemporary
1272 pages · Paperback · Automática editorial
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness