Park Slope parents explored through one’s fiction
Brooklyn BookBeat
Park Slope parents have a reputation. Often mocked as kale-loving yogis who cannot help but intervene in every minute detail of their child’s actions and interactions, the stereotype is easily recognizable. Author Amy Sohn, a Park Slope mom herself, has long been fascinated by modern marriages and parenting, and through her writing she unabashedly spotlights the familial relationships she observes close to home. Her latest novel, “Motherland” (recently released in paperback by Simon & Schuster), is no exception. A sequel to her New York Times bestseller “Prospect Park West”, “Motherland” offers Sohn’s sharp, unsentimental take on some modern Brooklyn parents as they struggle to relax and enjoy a vacation on Cape Cod.
The novel features characters from the earlier work – most notably Rebecca, Karen, and Melora – along with their husbands, who are immersed in dramas no less complicated than those of their wives. Rife with tension, temptation, and infidelity, “Motherland” traces these characters’ intersecting stories and highlights the complexities of marriage and parenting in America today.
In celebration of the book’s paperback release, Brooklyn Eagle spoke to the author. She tells us what it’s been like to write about her own neighborhood and offers her take on the advantages and challenges of modern marriage.