The Life of the Mind - Christine Smallwood

Genre: Literary Fiction | Contemporary Fiction

Publisher: Europa Editions

Release Date: Expected 14th October 2021

Dorothy, or DoDo to her friends, is having a miscarriage. But honestly, it's more of an inconvenience in her mind than it is a trauma - life is traumatic enough as it is after all. But as the weeks pass by, she finds herself still feeling the side-effects that she was assured would pass within days. Struggling with her own mind, with knowing that refusing Motherhood is a feminist right but still feeling like a failure as well. Unable to confide her deepest thoughts in anyway, not even her two therapists, Dorothy searches for answers and meaning in places she'd never thought to look before.

"Dorothy could not be sure if she meant to imply that a life of mourning was an exercise in nobility or a pathetic waste, or both, or neither."

The Life of the Mind is an unapologetically, shamelessly vivid and brutally blunt exploration into womanhood and motherhood - cleverly delivering hard-hitting truths about the world we live in and their entitlement towards the female body. This book will most definitely make some readers recoil in disgust because of it's frank depictions of bodily functions but of course, aren't we used to women not discussing these things?

Told through a cold, apathetic and somewhat detached voice that keeps us almost at arms length, most of this book is told through Dorothy's inner monologue. Observant, curious but not emotional - she was an odd narrator, I can't say I particularly liked her but she intrigued me.

Highly imaginative and descriptive, this sharp and provocative novel has no journey or direction, just a character trying to make sense of her life and a snapshot of a woman struggling to find the words to say exactly what she needs to change.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I was gifted an advanced copy of this title in return for an honest review.

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