Birth is clearly a creative process. It can also be, as author Elisa Albert shows in AFTER BIRTH, the beginning of a time of destruction. Destruction of sleep habits, health habits, friendships and partnerships, and even physical and mental health result from giving birth or becoming a parent. Albert shines a powerful light on the little discussed destructive aspects of birth and parenting through her character, a new mother named Ari, during the cold months of an upstate New York winter.

Ari’s son, Walker, is almost a year old, and she is struggling with the dissertation she doesn’t believe she will ever finish. Living in the small college town of Utrecht, New York, with her nice guy, academic husband Paul, Ari has made no real friends and feels lonely, isolated and depressed. Her honesty, about her earlier life, her feelings for her baby and about herself, is brutal but also whip-smart and darkly funny. When Mina Morris, poet and punk music legend, arrives in town, Ari is thrilled at the prospect of meeting her, especially when she sees that Mina is pregnant. Could she become friends with Mina? Might they commiserate over motherhood and snowy small town life?

"AFTER BIRTH is often painful and heartbreaking. Ari's floundering sadness and anger are harrowing and real, and her realizations about motherhood, female friendships and self-worth are so moving to read."

Ari does come to know Mina, and they do bond over the discomfort of the ninth month of pregnancy, the run-down charm of Utrecht, and stories of pre-motherhood freedoms and escapades. When Mina delivers her son, Ari is there to comfort her with food and a set of helping hands. Part of Ari’s depression stems from her belief that she failed at childbirth (and the start of motherhood) by having a c-section, and she unfairly contrasts herself with Mina, who has a home birth. When Mina’s son is not getting enough nourishment and fails to thrive, Ari offers a radical solution that helps the baby and benefits both mothers immeasurably. It is only then that Ari feels herself starting to get better.

Albert's writing is fantastic. She is at once descriptive and spare, and Ari's voice is real and irresistible. Unfortunately, for some, her subject matter --- how women give birth, feed and care for their children and themselves, and their roles as mothers and thinkers in society --- is a potential minefield. But Albert never avoids the mines, instead walking fiercely toward them. The result is unforgettable.

There are so many emotional buttons pushed in AFTER BIRTH that it is hard to list them all. Ari, damaged by her relationship with her emotionally abusive mother, who died when Ari was young, fears damaging her son in turn. She has no female support and is suffering from postpartum depression, regrets her decision to allow the c-section, and both resents and deeply loves her husband. Albert’s novel is frankly sexual, feminist, keenly observant on matters of gender, gender politics, culture and social norms, and a strong indictment of all things “mommy wars.” Albert's ideas about the medicalization of childbirth and the catch-22s of breastfeeding are powerful and moving as readers watch both Ari and Mina struggle and then find clarity.

AFTER BIRTH is often painful and heartbreaking. Ari's floundering sadness and anger are harrowing and real, and her realizations about motherhood, female friendships and self-worth are so moving to read. This novel is astonishingly good.