The Press

  • " The Mothers” is a spirited and admirably frank novel. Gilmore is at her best when describing the darker details of the ordeal, imbuing the moments of distress with authenticity and a deft, ironic humor. By the end of the book it is impossible not to find yourself rooting for Jesse and Ramon. "

    — Molly Ringwald, The New York Times Book Review

  • “Gilmore does a wonderful job juxtaposing society’s often unrealistic expectations of what a mother should be with characters who represent more realistic portrayals of what motherhood really is.”

    — Mary Cadden , USA Today

  • “The story doubles as a survey of the current state of the adoption process in the U.S., a process that alternately unites the couple and threatens to tear them apart, and their journey yields contemplation on the nature of motherhood itself.”

    —The New Yorker

  • “Through Jesse’s obsession with motherhood we can feel not only her yearning but also the backbreaking weight of cultural expectation.”

    — Darcey Steinke, The Los Angeles Times

  • " The Mothers” is surprisingly easy to read, clipping from one obstacle to another with humor and insight."

    – Ann Bauer, The Washington Post

  • " …that’s why the novel is so emotionally authentic. Gilmore has captured many of the class, race and gender issues that are the less savoury aspects of the adoption industry. "

    — Laura Eggerston, The Toronto Star

  • " …with scalpel-like precision, Ms. Gilmore takes apart the standard adoptive-parent narrative… What I admire most about this novel is its truthfulness about their [Ramon and Jesse’s] inner lives. "

    — Martha Nichols, In The Christian Science Monitor

  • " With unblinking clarity and — what do they call it when men write with power? — muscular prose, she wrestles to the page and peels away the Hallmark card narrative of infertility and motherhood and writes right to the breaking heart of it all. "

    — Pamela Cytrynbaum, The Forward

  • " Gilmore’s Jesse finds that she can still depend on “the surprising durability of my own heart. "

    — Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe

  • " …Jesse, the writer’s intense and complicated alter-ego, is an ideal vehicle for showing what the want of a child can do to a woman and a marriage. "

    — Ellen Emry Heltzel, The Seattle Times

  • " In Jennifer Gilmore’s timely, riveting and heartrending novel The Mothers (Scribner)an infertile couple’s sanity and marriage are tested by the domestic open-adoption process. "

    — Elissa Schappell, Vanity Fair

  • " Gilmore tracks Jesse through an often-torturous process with a careful eye for detail"

    — Justin Bauer, Philadelphia City Paper

  • " Throughout, Jesse muses on the essence of motherhood—and on how the biological clock can be challenged by circumstances. Though often painful to read, this candid account at once embraces “the possibility for anything… "

    — Publishers Weekly

  • " Gilmore’s view is unflinching, touching, and even laugh-out-loud funny. Unsurprisingly, she’s as eloquent a speaker as she is a writer.”

    — Kayla Tanenbaum, Glamour

  • "VERDICT: Gilmore has written a humane, realistic novel of the penetrating sorrow of people deprived by biology of their overwhelming need to be parents and of the harrowing, obstacle-riddled path to adoption."

    — Library Journal

  • " Heartbreak occasionally spiced with hilarity characterizes this persuasive docu-novel that scrutinizes mothers with limited sentimentality. "

    — Kirkus Reviews

  • " Gilmore does an excellent job of capturing … raw and complex emotions … Tense and heartbreaking, with moments of surprising humor, this story about families, mothering, and love is both entertaining and thought-provoking."

    — Booklist

  • " When Gilmore decided to write a novel about adoption, a process she and her husband were intimately familiar with, she says she originally planned to look at “race, class and the sanctioning of mother­hood.” Instead, she wrote a story that is much more raw, a wrenching look at want and wanting. "

    — Adrian Harris Forman, Brandeis Magazine