Unfolding across 24 hours, this is a novel about the absurd, frustrating, hilarious, precarious, bittersweet, sometimes astonishing challenge—literal, existential—of being a woman, a mother, a wife, a person for one single, entire day.
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.
