When I was approached by Will from Renard Press to read this book, I found its premise really intriguing and said yes, of course! I found I kept wanting to call it ‘Fledgling’ – but that’s wrong – its title has no ‘l’. To fledge, as in the verb, is about the process of raising a young young bird until its feathers are developed and it is old enough to leave the nest, when it then becomes a fledgling.
Our narrator Lia is confused. She’s not sure if she wants children or not, probably not. All around her friends are getting pregnant, couples are having children, babies are being brought into work. Her lack of maternal instinct is both worrying and comforting; her partner David, is on the other side of the world on a music fellowship; her ageing mother is not as well as she was; her own career as a songwriter is not taking off. There’s a lot to think about, added to which she’s been suffering from abdominal pain for a while which, as the novel begins, has changed to full on contractions and her body expunges an egg! It’s not an easy process for her, it’s messy and so strange, but she does lay the egg – saving it from the bathwater to wrap in a towel.
The three sections of this novella are entitled, Brooding, Hatching and Fledging, so it’s fairly obvious from the start that she’ll keep it, brood it until it hatches, then look after it until it fledges. The birds on the cover and the term fledging, drive us to assume there’s a bird inside the egg’s shell. This is a very different kind of story to that of Isaac and the Egg (in which a suicidal man found an alien egg in the woods and nurtures it, and the strange friendship helps his mental health). This egg will hatch, and give Lia the experience of trying out motherhood – of a feather-baby (rather than a fur-baby).
‘Is it time I grew up?’ I ask the egg. They told that bleeding made girls into women. Then they said that marriage made you whole. At my age, the ask is to be reproductive. I ask the egg, ‘Am I being reductive?’
Should she tell David, her mother, or her doctor the full extent of what has happened to her? It’s an embarrassing situation and she can’t quite bring herself to say it out loud. Yet she finds herself caring for it, as it dominates her whole life. It’s such a distraction from her work, her friends, her previous life, which she resents while looking after bird. The deteriorating situation with her mother’s health, as she reverts to needing care is resonant too.
As an extended metaphor for a woman’s choice to have, or not have, children, this novella is a great success. It handles the all the questions around this issue with sensitivity and compassion. Lia is shocked when one of her doctors describes her as nearly geriatric (a term used to describe pregnancy in over 35s). Is her experience with the egg a warning that her biological clock is about to go ping and she might change her mind? Or is it letting her make that decision the other way, having had a taster of what it’s like to be a mother? Diell lets Lia make the decision that’s right for her and we can applaud that.
Diell’s writing is super, never wasteful with words. In Lia she has created a strong narrator capable of explaining to us fully how she’s feeling and this makes for a lucid, nuanced and finely balanced read. For those of us who have had children, Fledging is a novella that definitely helps us to understand the position of those who, for whatever reasons, haven’t had kids; to be more empathetic and supportive accordingly. For those without, Fledging is a powerful illustration of individual choice. I was pleasantly surprised by this novella, and as a result I can recommend it thoroughly.
Source: Review copy thank you! Renard press paperback original, 172 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link.
I didn’t realize what this was about! That’s a theme that would really interest me. And novella length, too. I have often said to my husband, if I could just lay an egg and incubate it under the cat, maybe I would have had kids 😉
I was pleasantly surprised how well this novella worked. I’ll send my copy to you if you’d like?
I would have wondered how successful this premise would be and a bit sceptical about it for such a complex, sensitive subject, so I’m pleased to hear it worked well! I’ll look out for this.
I was more intrigued because Renard is a small press with a growing reputation and an interesting list, and I’m glad I wasn’t disappointed.