CG: What resources are available for women experiencing postpartum mood disorders?
TT: Probably the best resource in the US is www.postpartum.net. From there you can locate other resources. If you don’t find what you need on the website, call or email them.
CG: Is there anything else you would like to add?
TT: Women with this illness are not evil and are not to blame—even those who harm others. Blaming the woman is a step away from what we need, which is more efforts to prevent such tragedies. We need increased education and awareness that can lead to prompt action and proper care.
Also, I appreciate your contacting me in an effort to “get it right.” Too often articles and stories about this illness simply reinforce common misconceptions—even when the writer is well-intentioned. This is such a problem that I actually devote part of a chapter in my book to address those in the media.
CG: I’m glad that I did. Also, that chapter, “Postpartum Psychosis Across History and in the Media Today,” was very helpful. Throughout your book, the distinctions you make between what people used to refer to as “baby blues” and specific postpartum mood disorders helped me think about what my characters were experiencing and about stereotypes that I wanted to move beyond. I remember vividly that my mother told me that after she gave birth to her middle child (my older brother) she had suicidal thoughts. I was the first person she’d ever told about what she experienced because she still had a deep sense of shame about the feelings she’d had. I’m grateful to you, and other writers, for shedding light on these experiences in a compassionate and nonjudgmental manner. Thank you for your book and for doing this interview.
TT: Thank you.
Reading Group Guide
Describe the setting of the novel. How do the surroundings create a mood or reflect the thoughts and actions of the characters in the story?
What was your first impression of Daphne? Did you think she was a good mother? What about Laurel?
When did things first appear to be off with Sky? Can you point to a specific moment in the story when you felt that she wasn’t quite who she seemed to be?
Describe and compare the narrative voices between the three journal writers (Daphne, Laurel, and Edith).
The connection between women and madness goes back a long way. Indeed, the term “hysteria” originates from the Greek word for uterus, hystera. And throughout history, women who have rebelled against patriarchal control and the demands for respectability were considered “deviant” or “mad.” How do the female characters in The Other Mother play into this historical narrative? Are they acting out against male control? How so?
Do you think Peter is a good husband? Why or why not?
There’s a lot of doubling—groupings of two characters who appear to resemble or switch places with each other—throughout this story. Describe these groupings. In what ways do the characters double each other?
Take a moment to think about the significance of myths in this story, particularly those about Solomon and the changeling. What do these myths suggest about motherhood? How do they inform specific moments in the novel?
What is postpartum depression? How much did you know about this condition going into the story? What did you learn?
Comment on the story’s narrative structure. How does the nonlinear format engage with the story’s themes of psychosis, depression, and mental illness in general? If the narration unfolded from start to finish, how would the reading experience change?
When Billie first tells Daphne about the woman who jumped from the tower, what did you make of the story? Did you suspect it was Sky or somebody else?
The story relies heavily on first-person perspective and written documentation (such as the journal entries and doctors’ files). How does this intimate method of storytelling challenge stigmas against mental illness? To what extent do you consider the characters depressed or neurotic?
Are you satisfied? What do you envision the future will look like for Daphne and the other characters?
Read OnAn Excerpt from The Widow’s House
Chapter One
WHEN I PICTURE the house I see it in the late afternoon, the golden river light filling the windows and gilding the two-hundred-year-old brick. That’s how we came upon it, Jess and I, at the end of a long day looking at houses we couldn’t afford.
“It’s the color of old money,” Jess said, his voice full of longing. He was standing in the weed-choked driveway, his fingers twined through the ornate loops of the rusted iron gate. “But I think it’s a little over our ‘price bracket.’”
I could hear the invisible quotes around the phrase, one the Realtor had used half a dozen times that day. Jess was always a wicked mimic and Katrine Vanderberg, with her faux country quilted jacket and English rubber boots and bright yellow Suburban, was an easy target. All she needs is a hunting rifle to look like she strode out of Downton Abbey, he’d whispered in my ear when she’d come out of the realty office to greet us. You’d have to know Jess as well as I did to know it was himself he was mocking for dreaming of a mansion when it was clear we could hardly afford a hovel.
It had seemed like a good idea. Go someplace new. Start over. Sell the (already second-mortgaged) Brooklyn loft, pay back the (maxed-out) credit cards, and buy something cheap in the country while Jess finished his book. By country, Jess meant the Hudson Valley, where we had both gone to college, and where he had begun his first novel. He’d developed the superstition over the last winter that
