Jerkins’s incisive social commentary shines through ... Jerkins conjures empathy for even her most complicated characters ... Jerkins’s expansive prose helps us see all sides of the thorny decisions her characters must make, so we can decide for ourselves who they are ... Jerkins uses sensory language that emphasizes the joys and sorrows of motherhood ... Laced with generational pain and sprinkled with magic, Caul Baby is a sweeping family drama with no shortage of action. During a pandemic that has laid bare a nation’s inequities, Jerkins’s work feels more relevant than ever. She approaches the complexities of Black motherhood, gentrification, and capitalism with urgency and care. What does it look like when a family reckoning with so many outside forces also suffers from within? What is the path forward in these times of dread, when so many long-held traditions no longer serve us? Jerkins offers solutions all her own in this blazingly original debut.
Morgan Jerkins delights in finding the fantastical within the familiar. In her new novel, Caul Baby, everyday life takes on a surreal glow ... No element of Caul Baby better illustrates Jerkins’ ability to spin magic out of the mundane than the titular caul, the amniotic membrane that surrounds a baby in the womb ... Jerkins began writing Caul Baby in 2015, shortly after moving to Harlem from New Jersey. That she worked on the novel almost the entirety of her time there is evident in the writing. Landmarks like Amy Ruth’s restaurant and St. Philip’s Church are name-checked, and the vibrancy of the city crowds every page.
This 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.
Caul Baby is an ambitious and unique novel ... Jerkins adeptly delivers a timely message as well as a novel replete with symbolism and metaphor. The Melancon brownstone is a character in and of itself. With jazz crooning in the background, cannabis smoke often in the air, and Iris and her spirit companions living in the basement, it is a home that moans with history and sadness ... Maman...is larger than life ... Her character is refreshing in its honesty and frankness ... Caul Baby is like nothing I’ve read before. It has historical references but is overwhelmingly a book of our time. It delivers a story that weaves the nuance of Black womanhood with intergenerational struggles and triumphs and the heartache of contemporary racial injustice.
Jerkins’ debut novel is a multilayered reflection of contemporary dilemmas with a touch of magic realism. With themes such as motherhood, acceptance, and a duty to be of service, the novel is well paced, with alluring anticipation. The writing is sharp with an empathetic undertone, encouraging readers to understand characters’ choices even if they don’t agree ... Jerkins solidifies herself as one of our guiding literary lights, no matter the genre.
...rich if didactic ... While Jerkins effectively blends folk legend with contemporary details such as references to the Black Lives Matter movement and gentrification in Harlem, the premise is restricted by occasionally prosaic writing...and the heavy-handed moral of the story, which implies that Black women who fail to support other Black women will pay a price. Still, it’s vividly conceived, and the strong plot will carry readers to the end.
This novel sinks under the weight of clunky melodrama, a river of tears, an awkward bloom of adverbs, and a plot so far-fetched that interior logic collapses. Readers keen for the indelible links among Black generations would do better with Margaret Wilkerson Sexton's The Revisioners (2019) or any of Toni Morrison's novels ... An intriguing idea for magical realism in Harlem delivers too little of either.
