AMERICAN WOMEN HAVE 1.66 CHILdren on average. Yet academic Catherine Ruth Pakaluk isn’t interested in averages, but in outliers — the five per cent of American women with five or more children. A mother of eight herself, Pakaluk seeks the “kernel of difference” that makes the five per cent exceptional. Hannah’s Children is born of her interviews with 55 such women, all American-born, university-educated and religious.
Do not dismiss these women as trad wives seeking to serve God through procreation. Pakaluk’s five per centers report being motivated not by religious obligation but by the sheer delight they take in their children, together with a crucial “posture of openness” to the possibility of another child.
Pakaluk’s interviewees are radiant with what I term “parent joy”: they call their children “blessings”, noting…
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The Critic (Digital) - 1 Issue, May 2024