White Walls: A Memoir About Motherhood, Daughterhood, and the Mess In Between

(Paperback)

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Judy Batalion grew up in a house filled with endless piles of junk, obsessively gathered and stored by her hoarder mother. The first chance she had, she escaped the clutter to create a new identity - one made of order, regimen and clean white walls. Until, one day, she found herself enmeshed in life's biggest chaos: motherhood. Told with heartbreaking honesty and humour, this is Judy's poignant account of her trials negotiating the messiness of motherhood and the indelible marks that mothers and daughters make on each other's lives.

Reviews

A beautiful memoir[It] tells the story of mother-daughter relationships in a way that is fresh, honest, sad, and funny all at the same time.Bustle

A Mom Must-Read.Parents

Batalion is a talented writer who balances the ups and downs, shares humor and heartbreak. Her sentences are beautiful: sometimes emotional, sometimes making you laugh out loud.Mayim Bialik on GrokNation.com (inaugural book club pick)

Told in a style that is anxiously charming, Batalions memoir asks what it means to love both our parents and to be free from their wreckage.Los Angeles Review of Books

Beautifully writtenWhite Walls is a sophisticated, daring take on the effects of the Holocaust, and Batalion represents an important voice on contemporary Jewish identity.The Jerusalem Post

A gorgeously textured, beautifully crafted book that touches the heart, tenderly, with laughter and with wonder, even as it reminds us of the strange, unyielding, often magical force of family in our lives.Jay Neugeboren, author ofImagining RobertandTransforming Madness

Honest, difficult, and perfect. Batalions sharp wit and hard-earned wisdom provide the reader with hope that we can all somehow find it in ourselves to embrace the inevitable chaos and change that comes with living an imperfect life.Nicole Knepper, LCPC, author ofMoms Who Drink and Swear

Sharp, quick, funny, but the kind of funny that sometimes has you feeling kicked in the stomach and teary with the delight of recognitionPart Nora Ephron, part Woody Allen.Honor Moore, author ofThe Bishops Daughter

This is a modern womans look at how we construct who we areboth through conscious, painstaking effort, as well as through acknowledging and embracing the comforting, familiar, and routine flows of our family histories.Library Journal

Author Bio

Judy Batalion grew up in Montreal. She studied at Harvard before moving to London, where she worked as a curator by day and a comedian by night. She now lives with her husband and daughters in New York.