Motherlunge : a novel /

*Starred Review* Scott's impressive novel about the joys and challenges of motherhood features wry, likable Thea, who lives in the shadow of her beautiful older sister, Pavia. When the two walk down the street, Thea catches their reflection in a store window and casts herself as the ugly duckling. When Thea learns that Pavia is separated from her husband, she leaves behind her small Montana hometown to come to her sister's emotional rescue. Turns out, Pavia is pregnant, and shortly after the baby is born, she disappears, leaving a note with instructions to Thea on how to care for her child. Thea's responsibilities for around-the-clock care trigger her own maternal impulses, and she confesses to her boyfriend, Eli, that she might like to have a baby of her own. Thea, alas, is all too aware that she possesses flawed genetic material. Her mother, Dorothy, is forever on the verge of mental collapse. In this solid first novel, Scott, winner of the 2011 AWP Prize in the Novel, renders wonderfully offbeat characters in crisp, polished prose.--Block, Allison Copyright 2010 Booklist

According to writer Don Lee, who selected Scott as the winner of the 2011 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Prize, her book explores "the legacy of motherhood" and the "afflictions that may cycle through generations." That's true as far as it goes, but Lee's a far better judge than blurber: Scott's debut is about likable, uncertain Thea and her beautiful sister, Pavia, about having and not having a child and having and not having a mother. It's about making decisions and not making decisions and the way these, plus luck, good and bad, become your life. And it's about pleasure-ours, as we listen to Thea tell her unborn daughter about sex and love and sorrow, and what happened when she left her small Montana town to go to the big city and help out the pregnant Pavia. Finally, as we come to understand, it's about the decision, as Thea puts it, to "not not know." Funny and smart, and told in the first person, this is the kind of debut novel that's often assumed to be autobiographical. Whether it is or isn't, in Thea and those around her Scott has created characters we believe in and wish well, characters who feel real-strange and sad and happy, like real people are. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.