Spending her days in baby groups, playgrounds, and supermarkets, Soldier doesn't know who she is anymore. She hardly sees her husband, who has taken to working late most nights. A chance encounter with a former colleague feels like a lifeline to the person she used to be but can hardly remember.
A whole-body experience ...Brief but utterly remorseless ... The final section expands – abruptly, beautifully, agonisingly – to grapple with the true existential crisis at the heart of motherhood.
An astonishing high-wire act: a narrative at once raw and polished, brutally funny and quietly devastating ... There is a visceral quality to Kilroy’s writing ... That she can render new what has been so often documented is testament to the originality of her prose, which she makes appear effortless.
Kilroy’s central idea about the difficulties of early motherhood can feel familiar, but her narrator’s wit, brutal honesty, and unsentimental love for her child—and imperfect but ultimately decent husband—set this book apart.
