... powerful ... [House] writes with clarity and unflinching honesty about the tremendous lows of her years of active addiction and how she grappled with talking to her 9-year-old son, Atlas, about her past. She writes tenderly about Atlas, whom she describes as having the emotional maturity of a much older person ... Despite the heavy subject matter, Mother Noise manages to feel hopeful, thanks in large part to the sections about Atlas. There are also, unsurprisingly, echoes of Sedaris’s wit, as in a chapter about the hippy-dippy co-op she and Atlas visited in 2009 ... a powerful meditation on overcoming addiction, reckoning with the past and remaining hopeful for the future of our children.
... an unexpectedly uplifting memoir ... In her masterfully crafted memoir, House includes stories of despair and joy. Ultimately, the narrative she shared with her son also brings hope to her readers.
Moving ... House shines particularly when writing about her past and speculating on how her community would treat her, and her son, if they fully knew about her history of addiction. With care and sensitivity, she depicts herself at different points in her life: as a curious child, as a woman navigating rebab, and, ultimately, as a mother to a son looking for answers ... A powerful, brilliant exploration of motherhood and its inextricable links to the other selves comprising a mother; those pieces that society doesn’t accept as part of the entrenched narrative about the meaning and purpose of motherhood.
Motherhood and mental illness form the double helix of House’s debut book that combines titled, episodic pieces with some of House’s drawings, which resemble faithfully reproduced family photographs ... Exalting art, our families, and ourselves, House’s writing is serious with room for lightness, polished without sacrificing sincerity. Memoir devotees will find it hard to put down.
Brilliant ... A mix of unflinchingly frank vignettes and vivid sketches ... Echoes of Sedaris seep through in House’s mordant wit...but it’s her raw prose and poignant musings on parenting...that make this sing. A full-throated anthem of hope, this lends light to a dark issue.
Some essays are written as graphic shorts, with House’s illustrations, and the book doesn’t quite add up to a satisfying whole, as some pieces are too underdeveloped to resonate. But the best essays are powerhouses ... Despite the often depressing material, there is hope and considerable beauty in these pages, most notably in a section in which Atlas, showing uncommon compassion for his age, visits his dying teacher and holds her hand. A grim yet hopeful portrait of one woman’s emergence and triumph over drug dependency.
