With its brutal honesty, marital gripes and trip inside one frazzled mother’s brain, Natural Disaster is reminiscent of Claire Kilroy’s excellent 2023 novel Soldier, Sailor, but it is also very, very funny ... I read Natural Disaster each evening with much the same feeling -— of nursery-gates solidarity, sure, but a lovely helping of schadenfreude too. Bliss.
I have no doubt that many readers, especially women, will adorn this book with such well-worn terms as honest, unflinching, relatable and perhaps even hilarious. And yes, there are mildly funny observations and attempts at slapstick absurdity ... I found this novel genuinely shocking. Not because of all the ways parenting can go wrong, or how children can be wily or difficult or constantly demanding (this is not a case of a woman without children naively astounded by the realities of parenthood). My issue lies solely with the character of the mother, and her stunningly unfeminist approach to not only mothering but all of her personal relationships.
The novel confronts difficult subjects such as resentment, infidelity, and burnout, while showing how love can also feel demanding, conflicted, and hard to sustain. Owens presents a clear account of a woman trying to meet competing demands. The result is a focused study of motherhood, disappointment, and love.
Smart and painfully relatable ... Owens is an excellent anthropologist of new motherhood, her prose is nuanced and funny, and the novel builds by gradual accumulation of detail to a surprisingly weighty denouement. It’s a keen-eyed narrative.
