Surrendering To Motherhood by Iris Krasnow, Aris Krasnow

From the Publisher

Surrendering to Motherhood is the story of one woman's search for spiritual fulfillment and personal identity that takes us along on her climb higher and higher on the career ladder, which only leaves her feeling emptier and emptier. After coming of age with women's liberation and the sexual revolution, the author finds emancipation at last in the Zen of running a houseful of children. Surrendering to Motherhood is about letting go of the burning need to achieve, and finding your true self in the love and calamity of motherhood. It is not a condemnation of any woman's choice, but rather a book that inspires all women to choose. A powerful and intimate story, this book sends a message to the author's own baby-boom generation programmed to "have it all." Iris Krasnow tells them - and all of us - to stop and savor the moment, rather than constantly trying to reach somewhere higher and better. In this personal sojourn, there is a bounty of universal wisdom.

Publishers Weekly

Freelance journalist Krasnow spent her youth cavorting with California hippies and seeking enlightenment through mediocre relationships, and later as a UPI correspondent. Married in her early 30s, she delves into motherhood in a big wayfour children in five years, including twinsbut is taken by surprise when her ability to juggle the roles of writer, mother and wife begins to wane. She realizes something has to give, and that something is work. For a long time Krasnow resisted the idea that being a full-time mom was as valid a life choice as being a hot-shot journalist. She eventually finds Zen-like tranquillity in overturned plates of scrambled eggs and hair caked with peanut butter. Her journey also leads her back to her Jewish roots with a new-found appreciation for her Holocaust-surviving mother. Krasnow's architect husband remains in the background, and readers are left to marvel at mom's adept handling of her four "wriggly little boys" nearly single-handedly during daytime hours. The book, which grew out of an essay published in the Washington Post in 1994, is full of elementary feminism, but the author's message to working mothersbe there for your kids while they're youngseems as sound coming from her as it probably did the first time you heard it. (May)

Library Journal

Krasnow, a freelance journalist who has worked for the Washington Post and UPI, begins her memoir by remarking, "after years of trying to find power in various gurus, interviews with movie stars, senators, and even a queen, surrendering to motherhood was the most liberating and powerful thing" she ever did. In great detail, Krasnow takes us through her life as a child growing up in Chicago, college in California, glamorous jobs, a string of exotic boyfriends, and success in her field. She still felt "something huge was missing." After various quests, she married and is now the mother of four boys under seven and has surrendered to days of diapers and educating her sons. By the end of the book, she has realized that no one can have it all, that sometimes more is just more. We know that out of the havoc she has found peace. Her book is a bit whiny and filled with too much "me generation" angst. Still, the writing is first-rate. Recommended for general collections.Susan Dearstyne, Hudson Valley Cty. Coll., Albany, N.Y.

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