RebeccasReads.com - Your Roots Are Showing by Elise Chidley

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Your Roots Are Showing

Elise Chidley
5 Spot (2008)
ISBN 9780446178143
Reviewed by Jeneke Lesak for RebeccasReads (1/09)

“Your Roots are Showing,” a literary debut by Elise Chidley, is an honest, fast-paced tale set in modern day England about Lizzie, a woman with three-year old twins, who is suffering from post-partum depression and in a struggling marriage.  As luck would have it, she sends an angry rant of an email, intended for her sister, to her husband who takes it so seriously that he leaves her.  Lizzie is left in the dust to pick up the pieces of herself, figure out what happened to cause her to be in such a state and how to become a whole person again.

Any person enduring the first few years of parenthood can certainly empathize with Lizzie’s character, I know I did; with all the sleepless nights, the pressures of losing your old identity and being placed in this new role.  As a stay-at-home mother I find myself relating to these issues of identity and the how the marital relationship shifts once children enter the picture.  Chidley’s story offers a fun and revealing insight into the mind of a new mother.

The writing is smooth and flowing, a definite page-turner.  She writes with straightforward British colloquialism and wit.   Here is an example that shows a little of Lizzie’s attitude.  It is also a metaphor running through the book about Lizzie being forced to look at her identity deeper than she had imagined: “Do you realize you’ve just turned my molehill of a garden into a complete and utter bloody mountain?”  “Your Roots are Showing” not only means a sign of not taking pride in self care, but also that she must get down to the root of her problems, mainly that she has not vocalized her concerns with her husband about their marriage.  Communication is the key! 

Chidley has provided the literary world with a great piece of fiction regarding post-partum depression, a topic that is often overlooked but without a doubt needs more exposure, so that people understand what a tough job being a mother (and a father) is.  This is a warm, feel-good, long-soak-in-the-bathtub book.  I was always anticipating what likeable Lizzie had in store for me in the next chapter. Romantic and sweet, with a fairy tale ending, this book is meant to make the reader feel optimistic about relationships and self-transformation.

  

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