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Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

Elif Shafak

Hardcover | Pages: 267 pages

Rating: 3.7 | 10608 Users | 1563 Reviews

Declare Containing Books Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

Title	:	Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within
Author	:	Elif Shafak
Book Format	:	Hardcover
Book Edition	:	Anniversary Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 267 pages
Published	:	April 28th 2011 by Viking (first published December 2007)
Categories	:	Nonfiction. Biography. Autobiography. Memoir. Feminism. Asian Literature. Turkish Literature

Description Toward Books Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

An acclaimed Turkish novelist's personal account of balancing a writer's life with a mother's life. After the birth of her first child in 2006, Turkish writer Elif Shafek suffered from postpartum depression that triggered a profound personal crisis. Infused with guilt, anxiety, and bewilderment about whether she could ever be a good mother, Shafak stopped writing and lost her faith in words altogether. In this elegantly written memoir, she retraces her journey from free-spirited, nomadic artist to dedicated but emotionally wrought mother. Identifying a constantly bickering harem of women who live inside of her, each with her own characteristics--the cynical intellectual, the goal-oriented go-getter, the practical-rational, the spiritual, the maternal, and the lustful--she craves harmony, or at least a unifying identity. As she intersperses her own experience with the lives of prominent authors such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Alice Walker, Ayn Rand, and Zelda Fitzgerald, Shafak looks for a solution to the inherent conflict between artistic creation and responsible parenting. With searing emotional honesty and an incisive examination of cultural mores within patriarchal societies, Shafak has rendered an important work about literature, motherhood, and spiritual well-being.

Define Books In Pursuance Of Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

Original Title:	Siyah Süt
ISBN:	0670022640 (ISBN13: 9780670022649)
Edition Language:	English
Setting:	Turkey

Rating Containing Books Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

Ratings: 3.7 From 10608 Users | 1563 Reviews

Crit Containing Books Black Milk: On Writing, Motherhood, and the Harem Within

I liked th way she wrote melting her own story of motherhood with essays about different writers who never liked to be mum's. I read it twice

Elif Shafak is now one of my favourite writers.Through Black Milk, she takes us through her journey of postpartum depression interspersed with wonderfully written diversions to her Self - a mini-harem of six different versions of her and also to the lives of women writers spanning ages and continents.I'd highly recommend this book for women writers irrespective of their views on motherhood. This book despite its reason for creation is a feast to be devoured for those interested in reading about

Loved this book. It couldv'e been a favourite read.....BUTThere are alternative selves of Elif in the book namely some little women with different names; one is motherly, one is cynical, one is practical and ambitious etc. They were SO ANNOYING. Which is funny since the whole book revolves around these women through which we understand the thoughts in Elif's head.I hated them so much. But I loved ALL aspects of the rest of the book. Thoughts on writing, motherhood, societal expectations of

I read this book given to me by my sister on my birthday :) It's an intimate memoir of Elif Shafak. Elif Shafak is one of my favorite writers. I enjoyed reading about her. Her writing style is captivating and easy to read. In her memoir, she reveals how she struggled to choose between getting married or remaining single her whole life and later on, when she finally got married and gave birth to a child, her struggle to overcome postpartum depression. The book is described as being about

When I read that this book is about motherhood, a subject that's the least of my preferable, I hesitated for a while. But being it by Elif, I decided that as a loyal fan, I should read it. And to my surprise, I found it more relatable than I expected, filled with the writer's personal experiences, and her change of mind and heart, in addition to the mini biographies of many authoresses and poetesses, I found myself in every page of this book. I believe that this book is an important read not

I labeled this as 'non-fiction' with a tinge of regret and doubt since there are also plenty of beautiful fiction passages braided into Elif Shafak's narrative about motherhood and having a writing career as a woman.I didn't expect to like it so much, since auto-biographies tend to be much drier, usually. But it not only gave me more glimpses into how the personality of this wonderful author is (I knew her only by reading The Bastard of Istanbul, so far) but also much more.Here's how the book is

This book has lots of awesome quotes. But it was not the right book for me to read right now, I was just not in the mood and could not really relate to her struggles with marriage and pregnancy blues etc...