This week we take a look at the literature of motherhood. We find out whether the Chinese-American "tiger mother" Amy Chua is as ferocious as press reports would lead us to believe. She speaks frankly about the personal cost of riding the media storm whipped up by her book, Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and explains what the reaction reveals about western parenting neuroses, how her family reacted, and why her rebel daughter is the true heroine of the book.
Then we turn to Julie Myerson, who was accused of a "betrayal of motherhood" when she wrote a book which included an account of her teenage son's descent into drug addiction. Her latest book is a novel, Then, about a young mother who has lost her home, her family and herself, in an unnamed apocalypse. Myerson muses about why she felt compelled to tackle this subject now, and what is left of motherhood if you forget you ever had children.
We also debate the ethics of reviewing memoir, following another media storm on the books website around a review of No Off Switch, the memoir of DJ and world music champion Andy Kershaw.
Reading list
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua (Bloomsbury)
Then, by Julie Myerson (Cape)
No Off Switch by Andy Kershaw (Serpent's Tail)
