Life amid the monsters

[bibliogramma]

Mothers and Other Monsters, Maureen McHugh

Maureen McHugh is one of my favourite authors, who alas has not written nearly enough, due to health issues (this has happened to too many of the women whose work I enjoy reading). This collection of short stories by the author of China Mountain Zhang and Mission Child is a treat to be savoured. And I did.

McHugh’s stories, more often than not, are about people of little power or agency, people who at their core are not really all that unlike most of us, no matter how strange their circumstances may seem – people trying to find ways of surviving, getting by, getting through, doing what they can, managing, but not always successfully. They are often painful, often sad, but also often stories of small victories – which perhaps only seem victories to the person who achieves them.