The 16 linked autobiographical essays of Woman House, Lauren W. Westerfield's reflective second book, examine the author's mother's life and her own in the context of women's art and health.
Westerfield (Depth Control) is the primary caregiver for her mother, who has experienced alcoholism and depression and had a string of intestinal surgeries. Westerfield ponders how family stories are remembered and retold--or not. Previous generations' addiction, dementia, and domestic violence threaten to recur. In "On Becoming," Westerfield creates faux medical records for her parents, then herself, and reveals her mother's history of rape. She traces the pathways of trauma, as problem drinking and nonconsensual sex touch her own life. Her parents' acrimonious divorce also colors how she defines herself in relation to partners in "Double Exposure" and "Sequence of Events," the two strongest pieces.
The second person is a frequent tool here for considering memories at a remove and exploring conflicting feelings. Four interludes paint lyrical scenes from different points in Westerfield's past. Covid-19 diaries ("Distance Instructions" and "Pentimento") contemplate anxiety and isolation. The collection's title comes from a series of Louise Bourgeois drawings of the female body. References to Bourgeois's work (as well as Westerfield's mother's art from the 1970s) thread through; Westerfield finds in it "a celebration and exploration of the contradictory," such as "innocence and sexuality. Freedom and constraint." She even gets a tattoo of Bourgeois's Spiral Woman in honor of the artist.
Memory and feminism are potent themes in this intricate essay collection. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck