Review: That Kind of Mother

That Kind of Mother by Rumaan Alam
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The premise of the book (a white woman hires a black nurse to help her with her infant; they become close, and when the nurse dies in childbirth, the woman adopts her child) caught my eye when I was at the library. I really, really enjoyed reading this. I think I'm far enough away from my own children's infancy to be able to read of other mothers' experiences without my anxiety spiking, and those descriptions in this book - about sleep deprivation, breastfeeding, spousal relationships - rang true.

The specifics of a white family raising a black child are touched upon, although not comprehensively. More effort is dedicated to the relationship between the adoptive mother and her adopted child's biological sister, who has also just had a child. The family that is built across these people is non-traditional, to be sure, and the challenges they face are more than many families do. But I really loved reading about their relationships, and found myself rooting - hard - for the characters. A lovely read.

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