MixedThe New York Time Book ReviewThis wide-angle approach diffuses narrative weight, challenging the strength of any one character and therefore of the novel. I found myself wanting someone on the page to take me aside and share what hadn’t yet been fully expressed. Meanwhile the men in these women’s lives — godfathers, fathers, partners — are merely cursory figures, falling away quickly without accountability or complexity. This disappointment aside, the true strength of this book has a profound impact: in conveying the life-giving and life-sustaining power of Black women’s bodies, and the blood relationships between them ... Within these two interconnected families and these pages, symbolism and metaphor hang heavy, pulling at the reader to see the ways in which these Black women are both condemned by their community and sought out as sources of comfort by those who exploit them ... While much of the fantasy in “Caul Baby” can feel opportune and inconsistent, it is nonetheless purposeful. The novel surprises us with a tidy conclusion that I found myself disbelieving even as I craved it. The women Jerkins creates do not need men or any other outsiders to rescue them; they rescue themselves.
