Hachette Book Group Motherest: A Novel

This novel is a treasure. Deeply intimate and insightful, it explores the inner life of a young woman in such a thoughtful, emotional way that the reader feels she/he is embroiled in her world and her emotional experiences. Agnes is a remarkably aware character, one who is funny and dark, intelligent and uncertain, and most of all authentic. The intimacy with which I experienced this character was truly astonishing: it is rare to be able to connect with a character--to feel as if there is a genuine person--as well as I felt my connection to be with this character. This ability is truly a testament to a talented writer who is not only able to draw in the reader immediately but is also able to keep the reader interested in--even fascinated with--the character throughout the book. I felt consistently sympathetic with her, as if she could become part of my own life. The plot is carefully drawn out so that Agnes' growth during the course of the book is identifiable throughout, so that the ending becomes realistic and consistent with the changes she experiences. The epistolary approach is lovely--just enough to reveal Agnes' thoughts and convey her anger, both with subtlety and humor. I read this in less than two days; each time I put it down, I felt compelled to enter Agnes' world again until the end. The fact that this novel tackles universal issues--relationships of various kinds, love, separation, and parenting, to name a few--is further testament to the fact that it works on multiple levels. It's a true master of writing who, like Ms. Iskandrian, can create a world both highly personal and universal in its thematic scope. The most difficult thing about this book is that, like all things, it ends. More, more, more from this exceptional and talented writer! Very highly recommended.

This novel felt so new, but also wonderfully old fashioned. Dragged me kicking and screaming back into the muddled desires of my 19 year old brain and body. Set in the 90's, the author does such a great job of evoking those final quiet years before we all got swallowed by the all-seeing eye of the internet. Neatly captures the weird liminal moment of late adolescence/early adulthood, and underlines the hazards of independence, while getting at some fundamental and uncomfortable truths about motherhood. In a modest, understated way, and in the simplest language, the BIG questions get wrestled with here, and you hardly know it's happening because the narrator keeps things moving, and makes you laugh. One of the better books about loneliness I've read (take that, Franzen). Prickly, funny, sad and smart.

Read Motherest in a fit at the beach today. I loved it. It was one of the most emotionally rewarding novels I've read in years. Its so perfectly unsentimental and joyously symmetrical. Recommended for fans of coming of age stories and for fans of get-me-awwwwwway-from-myself stories. A family drama and a collegiate adventure that builds up into something epic in scope and contains the wicked and holy juice of life by the ultimate end. A startling book, devoid of high fructose corn syrup and diabolical with its scope. Such a deep book, like climb in your submarine and go down into the chasms beneath the sea and go so far down you come up out of the sea on the other side of the world, but also, that chasm is just your dead brother's bedroom. Technically I started reading this on Mother's Day and would have been able to read it all months ago but most of my reading is at an oil refinery and it would have destroyed that pink hardcover. What a satisfying piece of art. Takes the stuff of death and gives it new strong lungs to sing a wild song.

Motherest is unforgettable in its tenderness and darkness and truth, as it explores the utter silence that infiltrates and compresses a traumatized family. Agnes, the main character, deals with this silence, in part, by writing emotionally raw letters to her mother, who has abandoned Agnes at a crucial time in her life. There are beautiful moments in this book that will stick with me, and haunt me, as a mother, for the rest of my life.

Teen-aged girls aren't often given credit for their strength, but Iskandrian's character Agnes shows just how much resilience girls have. Her intelligence, insight, and strength of character create a almost microscopic lens that reveals the nuance of the world she inhabits. The prose is beautiful, vivid, and engaging.