4 Books That Complicate Motherhood

Sarah Blakley-Cartwright is the author of Heavy Cream, a novel about a teenage girl finding mother figures in unconventional places. It’s out tomorrow from Simon & Schuster. Below, Sarah Blakley-Cartwright recommends four books that complicate motherhood. Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou Maya Angelou’s mother, Vivian Baxter, sent Maya and her brother away as very young children to live with their paternal grandmother in Arkansas. When Maya returned to her mother years later, she regarded her less as a mother than as a beautiful, formidable stranger. Baxter, miraculously, does not demand to reclaim the title. Instead, she sets about earning her place in her daughter’s life. The story is unusual in tellings of maternal abandonment. The relationship is not repaired by revisiting the original wound, but by what Vivian Baxter does afterward. She is bold, glamorous, unconventional, and fiercely protective. If she has not been present in the lead-up, she repeatedly shows up for her daughter as she forges her way into adulthood. The woman who gave Maya away as a child is ultimately the woman who teaches her independence and gives her the confidence to leave when a situation prove...