Book Summary and Reviews of Mom Rage by Minna Dubin

Mom Rage by Minna Dubin

Mom Rage

The Everyday Crisis of Modern Motherhood

by Minna Dubin

  • Critics' Consensus (6):
  • Published:
  • Sep 2023, 256 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

A frank, feminist examination of the hidden crisis of rage facing American mothers—and how we can fix it

Mothers aren't supposed to be angry. Still, Minna Dubin was an angry mom: exhausted by the grueling, thankless work of full-time parenting and feeling her career slip away, she would find herself screaming at her child or exploding at her husband.

When Dubin pushed past her shame and talked with other mothers about how she was feeling, she realized that she was far from alone. Mom Rage is Dubin's groundbreaking work of reportage about an unspoken crisis of anger sweeping the country—and the world. She finds that while a specific instance of rage might be triggered by something as simple as a child who won't tie her shoes, the roots of the anger go far deeper, from the unequal burden of childcare shouldered by moms to the flattening of women's identities once they have kids. Drawing on insights from moms across the spectrum of race, sexual orientation, and class, she offers practical tools to help readers disarm their rage in the moment, while never losing sight of the broader social change we need to stop raging for good.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"The author's candid appraisal of her own rage... and her penetrating insights make for captivating reading. It's an astute account of how society fails mothers." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A cleareyed analysis of the intricate web of cultural and political challenges that make female-identified parenting nearly impossible...the author writes with humor, vulnerability, and a level of expertise that shape her narrative into a nuanced and convincing argument for justice." ―Kirkus Reviews

"Few issues are left untouched in this thought-provoking book on a hot topic that is seldom discussed." —Library Journal

"[A]n original, eye-opening look at the rage that can consume mothers… This book represents a voice that belongs in every parenting collection." —Booklist

"Mom Rage is a critical addition to the literature of mothering, compassionately exploring the ugly, rageful moments that haunt many of us even as we struggle to do right by our kids. Dubin invites us to consider our rage in the full context of a perverse, broken, contradictory, and cruel American system that fails families at every turn. I needed the compassion of this book, as well as its expansive look of what parenting can and should be." ―Lydia Kiesling, author of Golden State

This information about Mom Rage was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Minna Dubin

Minna Dubin (she/her) is a writer and mother in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, Salon, Parents, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Romper, The Forward, Hobart, MUTHA Magazine, and Literary Mama. She is the recipient of an artist enrichment grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. As a leading feminist voice on mom rage, Minna has appeared on MSNBC, Good Morning America, The Tamron Hall Show, NBC10 Boston, and NPR. She lives in Berkeley, California.

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