Mama Tried: Dispatches from the Seamy Underbelly of Modern Parenting

by Emily Flake

Overview

New Yorker cartoonist Emily Flake relates the hilarious horrors of pregnancy, birth, and early parenting in this funny, poignant, and beautifully illustrated book.

For most people, having a child doesn't go exactly as planned. Not many are willing to admit that not only did they dislike the early days of parenting, they sometimes hated it. Mama Tried is a relatable collection of cartoons and essays pertaining to the good, bad, and (very) ugly parenting experiences we all face. Subjects range from "are you ready for children?" to "baby gear class-warfare." With incredible honesty, Flake tackles everything from morning sickness to sleep training, shedding much needed light on the gnarly realities of breastfeeding, child proofing, mommy groups, and every unrealistic expectation in between. Mama Tried will be an indispensable companion for sleepless parents and a fond reminder for those already out of the woods.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455558230
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	10/06/2015
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	7.60(w) x 9.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Emily Flake regularly cartoons for the New Yorker, and writes and draws a weekly strip called Lulu Eightball (Atomic Books), which has been assembled into two collections. In 2007, she wrote and illustrated These Things Ain't Gonna Smoke Themselves (Bloomsbury USA). Her illustrations and cartoons appear in publications all over the world, including the New York Times, Newsweek, the Globe and Mail, The Onion, The New Statesman, and Forbes.

Editorial Reviews

"Emily Flake's book about pregnancy, birth and babies is completely hilarious. I've always loved her cartoons, but this book is even better. She writes and draws about a subject she knows quite well-the whole baby thing. It's all here: the frustrations as well as the deep love, and the bewilderment of dealing with things you never had to deal with before. A great book for anyone who has ever had a kid, or who's about to have one. She's the real thing."
-Roz Chast

"What a wonderful book. Emily Flake is consistently inventive and hilarious."
-Andy Borowitz

From the Publisher

2015-06-30
A graphic narrative provides a hipster's guide to motherhood. A spate of books has illuminated the current father, the guy who still likes to rock (to what has henceforth been dubbed "Dad Rock"), drink craft beer, and identify as much with the guy he was as the man he has become. Graphic artist Flake (These Things Ain't Gonna Smoke Themselves: A Love/Hate/Love/Hate/Love Letter to a Very Bad Habit, 2007, etc.) provides the feminine perspective, direct from "Brooklyn…ground zero for [every] manner of parenting craziness." In a chronological series of short essays that combine personal experience, how-to advice, and a self-deprecating, frequently profane sense of humor, she takes readers from "Trying to Conceive, Sorta" through toddlerhood. The expectant mother might blanch at much of this—the changes ahead, the prospects ahead for sex, rest, and finding time to work or even breathe—but much of it might seem funnier after the fact. "This is not a parenting manual," the author insists. "I do not have any words of wisdom or sage advice for parents." The text is more like a change-of-pace interlude to the full-color illustrations, some of them four-panel comics but many of them full-page stand-alones without captions. As she deals with everything from bodily changes through the trimesters and various types of baby showers through preschool, playgrounds, and relations with more vigilant mothers, Flake retains her club-girl spirit. "Saved by Rock and Roll," the penultimate chapter/essay, describes the feeling of how she "just didn't want to hear certain songs, I wanted to be annihilated by them. It was a very physical thing to me, then; it ran on a parallel track to sex but was not quite the same thing." And now? "Those fires have been tamped down in places and redirected in others." Her daughter increasingly becomes a presence in the narrative, and the father remains mostly behind the scenes, with the focus throughout on the mother. A mixed bag of a graphic memoir. Alternadad, meet Indie-mom.

Kirkus Reviews