For this month’s Book Club, I spoke to Lucy Jones about Matrescence, her book about the profound changes wrought by pregnancy and birth. Combining the biological, the social and the political with exquisite writing, this is a radical revision of a subject veiled in forced cosiness and obfuscation.
I loved talking to Lucy. Her frankness and curiosity - her utter realness - are an absolute balm for anyone who’s navigated the very particular environment of contemporary western maternity, whether that contact has been personal or at one remove. It helps us to understand why pregnancy feels like such a hinterland, and also why it doesn’t need to be this way.
One of the things that stuck me the most, as we talked, was the common experience of the self dissolving after giving birth, which was something I felt so strongly, but which seemed to be a unique way in which I didn’t cope. Reading Lucy’s work, it is clear that this is a common change with a neurological origin, a fundamental component of the experience rather than a dysfunctional reaction. The metamorphosis of matrescence is inevitable. We need, now, to ask how we can hold and honour this transformation, rather than paint it over in pastel tones.
You can listen in the Substack podcast feed, watch the video, or subscribe here to listen via your favourite podcast app. There’s also a transcript below if you prefer to read our conversation.
Our next Book Club pick is Oliver Burkeman’s Meditations for Mortals (a Reading Guide is coming next week!) If you’d like to join us live for future book clubs, and put questions to the author (as well as enjoying a host of other benefits), become a paid subscriber to The Clearing!
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True Stories Book Club with Lucy Jones