Studio of the Voice

Aldrich (Edge), a creative writing professor at Michigan State University, serves up intense personal essays in this rewarding collection. Several pieces probe the dynamics of mother/daughter relationships, as in “She and I (A Field of Force)” where Aldrich recounts getting into bitter fights with her 19-year-old daughter in the months before she moved out of their home, after which Aldrich felt devastated (“She is going to make another home for herself, on her own terms. I have not allowed myself to see that she is making the end of childhood”). “The Structure of Trouble” reflects on Aldrich’s strained relationship with her own mother—who spent most afternoons in bed, apparently overwhelmed by facing the responsibilities of parenthood with minimal assistance from her husband—while playing with form, recreating the uneasiness Aldrich felt as a child by gradually pushing the text into a tighter space on the right-hand side of the page. Elsewhere, Aldrich reflects on finding her authorial voice and the independence she felt swimming competitively in middle school. Still, the beating heart of the compendium is Aldrich’s candid reflections on her relationships with her mother and daughter (“I sometimes think of my life as one long attempt, and failure, to right the wrong-footed relationship I’ve had with my mother”) elevated by creative formal experimentation. This is worth checking out. (Feb.)