The Blue Jay's Dance: A Birth Year

This book was fine. I preferred the parts that dealt with the concrete experiences - animals crossing the lawn, writing while nursing a baby - rather than the philosophical parts. The section that dealt with birthing a baby, especially those moments right after giving birth where there is now a new person in the room, those were interesting and powerful. I thought of the women I know who have birthed babies and who are soon to birth babies and I let the awe of it flow over me. I thought about her point that we have epics describing famous battles, difficult battles, but no stories describing epic and difficult births; and this lack seems as true a proof of society's hatred of women as any around.

This is an account of the pregnancy and year following the birth of Erdrich's third daughter. It doesn't measure up to expectations set by the one Erdrich novel I've read, but if you happen to be a mother, if you enjoy vivid, poetic turns of phrase, and if you don't mind a narrative pattern that meanders and circles (much like time with small children), then you will like reading this book, as I did.

Erdrich takes the reader through her winter pregnancy, becoming a new mother, and reconciling that motherhood with her own needs, namely writing. I've never read any of her fiction, but I imagine it must be very lyrical because of the way she describes things in this memoir. This was an enjoyable read, though as new-mother memoirs go, I think I prefer the more humorous style of Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions.

In so many ways a special book by a special woman. Someone who lives with nature and has a purpose, a skill, a talent that makes life meaningful. Her relationship to her baby is well expressed, very familiar, it all rings true.