Catalina Infante’s first novel or when motherhood becomes something terrifying

The Argentinian writer’s link Catalina Infanta Beovic With the world of literature, she is undeniable and almost symbiotic. From her first steps she was very close to it, she is the daughter of a publisher and a bookseller mother. After publishing the story “We are all the same shadow”returns to the world of literature with “The crack”, his first novel, published in by the publishing house Emec of Planet Group; a story in which she ventures to reflect on motherhood and the mother-daughter relationship.

The story of “The crack” is played by Laura, a young mother who, after giving birth to her daughter, wonders “What do I know about being a mother? Absolutely nothing”. The feeling of smallness invades her in front of the fragile body of her baby, fragile in essence in front of the responsibilities and the fears which surround her spirit. In this story, baby catalina explains how overwhelming it is to come face to face with motherhood.

In the pages of this text there is a Laura transformed into a mother, and in her arms the little girl Lark, but birth represents not only a moment of life for her, but also of death, of something the protagonist is sure is gone. The new being and her new role demand limits of her that she would not have imagined before.

“I became interested in writing about loneliness and the ambivalence of motherhood and then other subjects such as mourning, exile, the relationship of mothers to feminism began to cross my mind. Finally, it is the reflection on my own motherhood, the experience of other women, the lives of the mothers around me, and a lot of fiction and non-fiction literature about motherhood that led me to put together this story. baby catalina in interview with The journalist.

Partner, family, friends and society itself conspire to try to contain, suggest, recommend or talk to Laura, but her messages seem meaningless in the face of the dystopian reality she is going through. One thing he longs to hear in this situation is the voice of Esther, his own absent mother. About this absence Laura postcard after postcard, he will reconstruct the relationship with his mother and the abyssal imprint she left.

Infanta she builds a poignant story, full of moving moments that help her approach motherhood from a more human side. A story that goes through the fears, exhaustion and disappointment of a new mother who, full of social mandates to fulfill, seeks to give the best of herself, but the overwhelming situation seems to suffocate her, to believe this story in which the Argentine writer sought to be as honest as possible.

“Motherhood and mourning the loss of a mother has gone through my life as a personal experience, for the same reason I reflected on the mother/daughter relationship for many years, until I succeeded in materialize in a fictional novel. It also coincides with the fact that in my work as a journalist I have had to write and interview many women on the subject of motherhood; each of these stories and these professionals that I have learned to to know have also nourished this novel » baby catalina.

In 148 pages, baby catalina reconstructs a terrifying view of motherhood, a side of a mother that is not as portrayed in magazines, TV shows or movies, a more visceral reality, is dedicated to breaking with what the world says about being a mother, also thinking about what it means to be a daughter, but above all about the threads that are woven between generations.

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