“Mothering in the late capitalist ruins can be, counterintuitively, extremely lonely work. Jennifer Case’s brilliant essay collection not only describes how and why this is true but also remedies some of that resounding isolation. Case keeps company with her reader, offering the reparative gift of her attention and fine wordsmithing. Like Louise Erdrich and Anne Lamott, she turns the experience of early motherhood into literature.”— Elizabeth Rush, author of The Quickening: Creation and Community at the Ends of the Earth “A searing and beautiful portrait of motherhood in America. With propulsive prose and stunning detail, Jennifer Case chronicles not just the birth of her two children but also the transformation that women undergo as they learn to care for and love their children.” — Michaeleen Doucleff, author of Hunt, Gather, Parent: What Ancient Cultures Can Teach Us About the Lost Art of Raising Happy, Helpful Little Humans "Jennifer Case’s lyrical, absorbing essay collection offers many kinds of birth stories—hospital births, home births, and the harrowing political landscape of forced birth. Yet her most piercing, revelatory attention is applied to the birth of the mother—this person who, while nursing, must learn to eat with a nondominant hand; this person whose safety and care are unjustly shaped by race and class; this person who navigates a new life that is so often fearful and lonely. Through it all, Case makes a wise, persistent case for community, collectivism, and hope. I felt the welcome possibility, in these pages, of a less lonely future for all of us.” — Belle Boggs, author of The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood"Women’s birth stories—like our bodies—struggle against cultural conditioning, paternalism, and the tensions wrought by sexism and sex differences. It is so important that we keep telling them, as Case has done in We Are Animals, a satisfying, insightful journey through early motherhood that is kept grounded with fresh reportage and fascinating biological and historical findings.” — Jennifer Block, author of Pushed: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution"Drawing on her own experience, her wide reading, and her ample talents as a writer, Jennifer Case has produced a searing, illuminating account of motherhood in all its cultural and biological complexity.” — Scott Russell Sanders, author of The Way of Imagination: Essays"Eloquent, beautiful, moving, and profound.” — Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity“We Are Animals" is not an op-ed. It’s one Arkansas-based woman’s candid account of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood, touching in frank terms on her feelings about her pregnant body, the pain of childbirth, antenatal and postnatal depression, the psychological effects of an unintended pregnancy, and the opportunity costs of breastfeeding.”—Amy R. Martin, Southern Review of Books“Seeing ourselves reflected and refracted in other mothers’ narratives becomes reassuring, normalizing, humanizing, emboldening, and, in many cases, essential for survival.”— Erin Wood, the Rumpus “Because these essays delve into the unique duality and conflicting feelings of motherhood, they offer a lifeline.”— Erin Wood, the Rumpus " Mothers reading this will feel seen and heard, and those who cannot know this experience will have their eyes opened and preconceptions challenged."— Elizabeth Soule, Southern Literary Review"Woven together with beautifully written personal stories and reflections, these essays cover topics ranging from birth experiences and trauma, to prenatal depression, to the challenges of breastfeeding, to unplanned pregnancy, and include deep examinations of the flawed medical institution and current political issues our country faces today."— Elizabeth Soule, Southern Literary Review
