Cry When the Baby Cries
The honest and hilarious graphic memoir
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
‘By turns bloody, sweet, bleak and joyful… It is also very, very funny’ NEW STATESMAN
This is a graphic memoir (like a graphic novel, but true – and also a bit graphic).
It’s about the delirium, chaos and strangeness of becoming a parent for the first time.
It’s for every one who has ever wondered if it’s ok to cry when the baby cries – and also laugh, snort, lie on the floor naked and drool when the baby drools.
This is definitely not a parenting manual, but it might be the only book about parenting you’ll ever need.
‘You will cry, yes, but mainly snort with laughter’ SUNDAY TIMES
'The most accurate account of becoming a parent I have ever read' PHILIPPA PERRY
'Bracingly truthful... very funny' OBSERVER
'It made me laugh, weep, cheer and howl... essential reading for parents and their peers.' NELL FRIZZELL
‘So clever, so funny, so astute, so healing. Becky Barnicoat is a stone cold genius' LUCY JONES
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
New Yorker cartoonist Barnicoat wrings hard-earned laughs from her experiences with motherhood in her wry graphic novel debut. She describes how her messy, painful pregnancy bears little resemblance to the images she sees on social media of flawless pregnant bodies, Instagrammable babies, and "aspirational" birth experiences (including "the dreamy water birth" and "the legend of the orgasmic dancing birth"). After her son is born via cesarean, she compares parenting an infant to a job where "sometimes the CEO will absolutely lose his shit and scream in my face for hours." Reentering the adult world proves difficult in a society that makes little room for strollers or breastfeeding. Though she mines her experiences for comedy, designing games like the Wheel of Parenting Insomnia (spin it to land on a "new, terrible thing to worry about" like the "microplastics time bomb") and Leaving-Your-Kid-at-Nursery Bingo (with squares like "guilt," "Eau De Nappies," and "why is the front door open?"), she's frank about being depressed, exhausted, and often reduced to tears. Her loose ink-washed art suggests the humanistic style of Roz Chast, complete with charmingly drawn babies and hilariously frazzled self-portraits (Barnicoat frequently depicts herself wandering around the house in a half-naked, feral state). Parents will find much to identify with, and expectant parents would do well to heed Barnicoat's warnings.
