A memoir told in essays and graphic shorts about what life looks like 20 years after recovery from addiction—and how to live with the past as a parent, writer, and sober person—from a regular opener for David Sedaris, Cindy House.
... 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.
