Little Labors

Little Labors

<p><strong>Rivka Galchen’s <em>Little Labors</em> is a droll and dazzling compendium of observations, stories, lists, and brief essays about babies and literature</strong></p><br /><p>Sei Shonagon’s <em>Pillow Book</em>—a key inspiration for Rivka Galchen’s new book—contains a list of “Things That Make One Nervous.” And wouldn’t the blessed event top almost anyone’s list?</p><br /><p><em>Little Labors</em> is a slanted, enchanted literary miscellany. Varying in length from just a sentence or paragraph to a several-page story or essay, Galchen’s puzzle pieces assemble into a shining, unpredictable, mordant picture of the ordinary-extraordinary nature of babies and literature. Anecdotal or analytic, each part opens up an odd and tender world of wonder. The 47 Ronin; the black magic of maternal love; babies morphing from pumas to chickens; the quasi-repellent concept of “women writers”; origami-ophilia in Oklahoma as a gateway drug to a lifelong obsession with Japan; discussions of favorite passages from the Heian masterpieces <em>Genji</em> and <em>The Pillow Book</em>; the frightening prevalence of orange as today’s new chic color for baby gifts; Frankenstein as a sort of baby; babies gold mines; babies as tiny Godzillas …</p><br /><p>Little Labors–atomized and exploratory, conceptually byzantine and freshly forthright–delights.</p>