“Unveiling the Hidden Truths: How Nicole Graev Lipson’s Memoir Transforms Fictional Characters into Real-Life Revelations”
Of the essays focused on motherhood, perhaps my favorite is “A Place, Or A State of Affairs,” which examines what Lipson dubs “maternal solitude deficit.” In a twist on Virginia Woolf’s admonition that women need a room of their own, Lipson takes it a step further, arguing that mothers need to spend time alone. She ruminates that alone time is so rare, mothers tend to snatch it in whatever way they can: “I’ve found solace as a mother in the soft narcotic light of a dentist’s chair and in a curtained corner of Beth Israel Hospital’s emergency room after smacking my head—while racing to clean up after a slime-making project—on the underside of our granite counter.” Her greatest insight about the need for alone time comes from her youngest daughter, who asks, “Sometimes I like to play alone, Mama….Can I play alone?” This moment prompts another of Lipson’s unforgettable lines: “It’s hard to give to your children what you have not been able to give to yourself. This, too, dawns on me.”
