(9/28/2017)
Who are Mothers of Sparta? Dawn Davies, in a series of essays about motherhood, writes, eventually, about her own experience of refusing to be a Spartan Mom willing to sacrifice her own damaged son.
Some chapters drew her as a self-indulgent hypochondriac with miserable pregnancies, colicky babies, smelly diapers, that nearly every mom experiences (unless she has a nanny). Some made me weep; some, howl with laughter. Poor girl, her life was a mess, but fortunately she managed to find a strong, kind husband who propped her up during the darkest hours.
I do feel her editor would have served her better by rearranging the essays so that the reader could understand sooner why, or if, she was a Mother of Sparta, rather than just another young wife with too many babies, too close together, with no support from a selfish husband. I believe this would have made her a more sympathetic character. Although to me this book was flawed, I wish her well and look forward to more Dawn Davies.