{"id":125986,"date":"2025-08-07T09:33:19","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T09:33:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/125986\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T09:33:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T09:33:19","slug":"what-chloe-caldwell-is-reading-now-and-next-literary-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/125986\/","title":{"rendered":"What Chloe Caldwell Is Reading Now, and Next \u2039 Literary Hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

The title of Chlo\u00e9 Caldwell\u2019s memoir, Trying<\/a>\u2014its potential ick implications (someone \u201ctrying\u201d to get pregnant)\u2014is something Caldwell is well aware of. And yet, buck it as she might, few words more accurately describe the intense desperation that can set in for someone hoping to conceive.<\/p>\n

For the person who will carry the baby, it can become a part-time job\u2014ovulation monitoring, supplements, fertility appointments, blood tests, pharmaceuticals, online groups, procedures, and, as people often maddeningly suggest, trying to somehow simultaneously chill out and emit good vibes. At one point early on in Trying, Caldwell reads a newsletter that posits \u201cthe brain of someone trying to get pregnant should be studied.\u201d Caldwell: \u201cConsider this book to be that brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because unlike the narratives often fed to us in feel-good movies or people\u2019s social media posts, despite everything being physically \u201cperfect,\u201d as she\u2019s often told, Caldwell doesn\u2019t get pregnant in six months\u2014or a year. It\u2019s taking long enough people in her life have learned to stop asking. It\u2019s eating up her life. On her \u201cunexplained infertility,\u201d she says that \u201cif something is unexplained, isn\u2019t it a writer\u2019s job to attempt to explain it? Or at least try?\u201d<\/p>\n

A book like Trying could have operated like the much-lauded Linea Nigra <\/a>by Jazmina Berrera (translated by Christina McSweeney)\u2014and indeed Trying similarly has short often page-long pieces of prose that string together like a row of fluttering flags. Yet Caldwell, in the frenetic holding pattern of pre-maternity, and pushes against the frequently employed methods of writerly triangulation between the speaker, her desire(s), and some third apparently disconnected thing that can be elegantly woven in (groundhogs or opaque philosophy, for example).<\/p>\n

Instead, Caldwell writes from her life and copious knowledge about fertility, about \u201ctrying.\u201d Then, after the revelation of a betrayal so severe she wonders if her body was somehow rejecting her husband\u2019s sperm, her life explodes. \u201cHow does a book about irresolution end?\u201d Caldwell asks in the final portion of the memoir. \u201cWhat is the reader owed? What is the writer owed?\u201d and, pointedly (something to which I and anyone writing personal nonfiction desperately relates): \u201cIf you\u2019re writing about your life in real time, are you inherently fucked?\u201d<\/p>\n

Caldwell tells us about her to-read pile: \u201cMy nightstand is a stack of books I put together to read when I was considering \u2018outlaw mothers\u2019 for the column I\u2019m writing for The Believer<\/a>. Super fun to scan my bookshelves to find which mother protagonists are outlaws, meaning they put their own personal fulfillment before their children\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

\"Where<\/p>\n

Yiyun Li, Where Reasons End<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Where Reasons End was written in the aftermath of Li\u2019s older son\u2019s suicide, and she has talked about<\/a> how this novel was part of her grieving process. Helena Duncan writes in Chicago Review of Books<\/a>,<\/p>\n

The book is not a mystery: the mother doesn\u2019t search for missed clues, or attempt to come to a conclusion about why Nikolai has chosen to end his life. Instead, the two talk to each other as they did in his life, and these conversations, which she describes as a kind of contract that they have both entered into, provide her with solace in the face of his absence.<\/p>\n

\"I'll<\/p>\n

Hala Alyan, I\u2019ll Tell You When I\u2019m Home<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Alyan was recently interviewed here on Lit Hub<\/a> by Sahar Delijani. Alyan says of I\u2019ll Tell You,<\/p>\n

in some ways, it felt more natural to lean into all of the parts of myself I find ugly, complicated, messy\u2014parts that have caused harm and been harmed\u2014than to tell only a little. But truth can also become a little bit addictive, right? The more I told, the more I wanted to tell. And in that way, it actually became easier to just commit fully rather than inch around it.<\/p>\n

\"Motherhood<\/p>\n

Sheila Heti, Motherhood<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lara Feigel writes at The Guardian, \u201cSheila Heti<\/a>\u2019s book seems likely to become the defining literary work on the subject [of motherhood], perhaps most of all because as a novel, replete with ambiguity and contradiction, it refuses to define anything, and certainly not the childlessness that provides its subject or the motherhood that provides its title.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m still puzzled by the many critics who were grumpy about this book. It kept me absolutely rapt for its nuance and, often, absurdity. (I could read pages and pages of the protagonist throwing coins in the I Ching method to learn from god if she should have children.)<\/p>\n

\"The<\/strong><\/p>\n

Julie Phillips, The Baby on the Fire Escape: Creativity, Motherhood, and the Mind-Baby Problem<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Baby on the Fire Escape considers artists and writers like Audre Lorde, Doris Lessing, and others. Lauren LeBlanc writes at the LA Times<\/a>,<\/p>\n

Juggling motherhood and creative work can leave one feeling like an iconoclast and a failure all at once. \u201cThe Baby on the Fire Escape,\u201d Julie Phillips\u2019 tremendous group biography and exploration of what she identifies as a \u2018mind-baby problem,\u2019 focuses on women of the mid-twentieth century onward, when \u2018motherhood went from being an accident and obligation to being a choice.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Fay Weldon, The Stepmother\u2019s Diary<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Emma Hagestadt writes at The Independent<\/a> that Weldon \u201cturns her brainy gaze on the muddle of modern family life. The diary of the title belongs to Sappho, a young playwright married to a widower 19 years her senior, and stepmother to his two children\u2026.Using the diaries as her starting point, Weldon constructs a funny, frank account of family relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tiffany Clarke Harrison, Blue Hour<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe unnamed narrator of Harrison\u2019s debut novel is a thirty-four-year-old Black Japanese photographer and teacher who is struggling with infertility and an increasingly complicated relationship to motherhood,\u201d says Kirkus<\/a> about Blue Hour. \u201cThe narrator blames herself for a life-altering family tragedy and struggles to believe she deserves good things, including, and perhaps most especially, a child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Claire Lynch, A Family Matter<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

A Family Matter is, as the title suggests, about a family, but forty years apart: in 1982 and 2022, with the future doling out reveals at the novel\u2019s beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cReaders will find themselves catching their breath at the truth and beauty of many of Lynch\u2019s sentences. Through her characters, Lynch shows her audience that love between people may change or plateau or grow by leaps and bounds, but as long as they want to keep it, they will,\u201d writes Jennifer M. Brown at Shelf Awareness<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sue Miller, The Good Mother<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, in his spoiler-filled 1986 review at the New York Times<\/a>, finds Medea an appropriate mythological equivalent to Miller\u2019s protagonist\u2014and wonders why she doesn\u2019t exact similar violence:<\/p>\n

The answer to my question was supplied by a couple of shrewd women I know. They pointed out what I\u2019d failed to recognize, that \u2018The Good Mother\u2019 is really an attempt to dramatize the common female fantasy that if a woman lets herself go sexually she loses control of her world, including her ability to mother.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s to shrewd women.<\/p>\n

\"Birth:<\/p>\n

Kristin Kovacic (editor), Lynne Barrett (editor), Birth: A Literary Companion<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBirth: A Literary Companion collects the work of fifty accomplished writers to guide new parents through this complex emotional terrain,\u201d states the jacket copy for this anthology that includes Toi Derricotte, Alicia Ostriker, and others. \u201cHere, a curious reader can find a frank, funny essay about breastfeeding, a vividly accurate story about labor, or a tender poem about the terror of holding a newborn child.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

Hila Blum, How to Love Your Daughter <\/a>(trans. Danielle Zamir)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTold from the per\u00adspec\u00adtive of moth\u00ader Yoel\u00adla in a series of short vignettes, the nov\u00adel opens with a scene of her hid\u00ading in the bush\u00ades, spy\u00ading on her grown daugh\u00adter Leah,\u201d writes Lauren Gilbert for the Jewish Book Council<\/a>. \u201cThe rest of the nov\u00adel, a loose col\u00adlec\u00adtion of mem\u00ado\u00adries out of chrono\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal order, fol\u00adlows Yoella\u2019s attempt to under\u00adstand what led to her beloved daughter\u2019s self-imposed estrange\u00adment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The title of Chlo\u00e9 Caldwell\u2019s memoir, Trying\u2014its potential ick implications (someone \u201ctrying\u201d to get pregnant)\u2014is something Caldwell is…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":125987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[1022,171,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-125986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114986798514524787","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}