Books

Owning her identity

Portland zinester's tales become a book

By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 3, 2009

After twice seeing the one-woman stage adaptation of The Passion of the Hausfrau at Portland Stage Company, and perusing several issues of the Hausfrau mutha-zine, I was curious to see how Nicole Chaison's tales of motherhood would translate to book form. Turns out, the trials and tribulations of parenting — trying to be a nurturing, progressive, patient mom, while also being a loving wife, and fulfilling personal creative and intellectual needs — are equally entertaining when bound all together. And the Hausfrau trajectory, which the Portland mother of two compares to the self-discovery journey of a mythical tragic hero, lends itself to being told in a continuous arc.

The Passion of The Hausfrau: Motherhood, Illuminated | by Nicole Chaison | Villard | 256 pages | $22

The Passion of the Hausfrau: Motherhood, Illuminated (a book-release celebration is planned for June 19 at Longfellow Books), retains the zine's conversational tone. It is a unique skill to impart parenting wisdom without being patronizing or self-righteous, and perhaps Chaison's whimsical, comic-inspired drawings, which complement and add to each story, help achieve that.

But most appealing is how vulnerable Chaison allows herself to be. Here is a woman who struggles with her sex drive, her feelings of ineptness and insecurity, her occasionally unruly children; here is a wife who loves and sometimes resents her husband; here is a writer without time to write; here is a woman who drinks wine to calm down, needs medication to deal with depression, deals with a passive-aggressive mother, gets sick, and cries. In other words, a woman like many of us. And because we relate to her, Chaison's joys — her delight in her children, her creative blossoming and success, her honest relationship with her husband — are that much easier to embrace.

Related: Deep impact, Dead like me, Back-to-school supplies, More

Deep impact
In the most memorable piece in Waterville author Ron Currie Jr.'s 2007 debut short story collection, God is Dead (Viking), God is reincarnated as a Dinka woman in a refugee camp in Sudan, who enlists a jive-talking Colin Powell in an effort to find a young boy.
Dead like me
"Perception vs. reality. In high school, they are pretty much the same thing." So writes Tonya Hurley, author of ghostgirl and ghostgirl: Homecoming (Little Brown), two books ostensibly written for young adults but with elements that are just as appealing to grown-ups.
Back-to-school supplies
After a summer that started with a monsoon and coasted into its final lap with a heat wave, when we talked about Wilco, celebrity deaths, and Shakespeare in the park, when we feared tasers and crime sprees, and we consumed Mexican food and ice cream, we're ready to make the transition into fall.
Which was fine
There are probably 10 or 15 reviews I could write of Jessica Anthony's The Convalescent . Leitmotifs populate the book's 240 pages like thick, black hairs on the back of an old man's wrinkled ass.
Breaking away
Out of Sterno is a quirky feminist comedy by Deborah Zoe Laufer, directed by Casey Stangl for Portland Stage Company.
Facing facts
The title assumes an evolution of meanings in Trying , an autobiographical drama by Joanna McClelland Glass, based on her experiences with the real-life Judge Biddle.
No assignments here
Need a break from all that required reading this fall? You're in luck. In
Into new worlds
The New Year opens with a duo of two-man, many-character comedies.
Portland’s wishes for 2010
Ah, these fresh moments of the new year, when our hopes and resolutions are unsullied by the rough ravages of time, politics, and the Maine winter.
Open lines
In our hyper-connected day and age, a woman laments in Dead Man's Cell Phone , there exist only three sanctuaries from the ringing: the theater, the church, and the toilet — and even these havens are ring-less only in principle.
Sins of the father
On a rainy afternoon, Hally, short for Harold, (Michael Littig) comes home from school as usual to his wealthy parents' tea room in apartheid-era South Africa.
Less

Topics: Books , Entertainment, Culture and Lifestyle, Performing Arts, More

| More

view all

[ 05/23 ] Eugene Mirman @ St Lawrence Arts & Community Center

[ 05/23 ] Wood Brothers + Seth Walker @ Port City Music Hall

[ 05/23 ] "2012 BFA Thesis Exhibition," mixed media student exhibition @ Maine College of Art

ARTICLES BY DEIRDRE FULTON

THE SECRET WORLD OF USM’S BLADE SOCIETY | May 16, 2012
It's a Tuesday night at the University of Southern Maine gym and Rob Tupper is leading a small group of fencing students through an exercise that looks like a cross between a line dance and an army drill.

REVIVING THE ELECTRIC CAR | May 16, 2012
Electric cars — ones that are completely rechargeable and use no gasoline — are now available in Maine, in addition to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and traditional hybrids, both of which boast higher fuel-efficiency than conventional cars.

SHIPPING NEWS | May 09, 2012
The loss of the nascent container-ship line in Portland's harbor last week was not just a blow to the city's desired reputation as a shipping hub — but also to the environment.

RICHARD RUSSO PAIRS WITH HIS ARTIST DAUGHTER | May 02, 2012
When the biggest news in the literary community is that the federal Department of Justice is suing Apple and five major publishing houses for fixing prices of e-books, or that the Pulitzer Prize for fiction went to exactly no one this year, it's easy to wonder whether we're getting away from the primary purpose of writing, and reading, books.

WHAT’S REALLY BEHIND HIGH GAS PRICES | May 02, 2012
Fingers crossed that we've seen the worst of it — analysts say gas prices won't go any higher than the April 6 peak of $3.94 per gallon — but filling up your tank this summer is still going to cost a big chunk of change.