Babyface

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 14 JUN 2004

A personal ad, placed on a whim, brings major changes in Gibson's wry debut. The sparks don't exactly fly between "triumph over tragedy" journalist Nina and mild, sensible software programmer Jonathan. But a surprise pregnancy means it's time to settle down, with the wedding in the future. After giving birth, Nina tries to bond with earnest mothers over breast-feeding, and views her "vanilla-toned" living room and life with understandable ambivalence. Then her fashion-stylist best friend, needing a baby for a photo shoot, entices Nina to bring her son. Soon, agents are calling and Nina is squiring Ben to shoots all over London and hiding the truth from straight-arrow Jonathan. When Jonathan finds out, the marriage plans are off, and Nina flees to the French countryside, where she makes new friends and takes a young lover while those she left behind intersect in unexpected ways. With self-effacing, deadpan humor, Gibson concedes motherhood's quotidian moments while also conveying its fierce pleasures. Nina navigates motherly duties and selfish desires with a humorous, almost accidental aplomb against a cast of familiar characters whose humanity gradually sharpens into focus. In the process, Nina confronts her past and questions the easy conclusions she's drawn in a life forever changed by her child. While Gibson doesn't quite get at the heart of Nina's relationship with Jonathan, she does charmingly evoke the bittersweet bond of motherhood.