Aviv on why sentimental writing about motherhood bores her
The Guardian interviews acclaimed New Yorker essayist Rachel Aviv about her second collection, You Won't Get Free of It, which reframes several of her reported stories around the mother-daughter relationship. The piece matters as a profile of one of today's most celebrated magazine writers, whose work — spanning psychology, medical ethics and criminal justice — has earned a National Magazine award, a George Polk award and a 2025 Pulitzer finalist nod.
Aviv explains she wanted to avoid the sentimental, reductive clichés of writing about motherhood, instead lifting a relatable dynamic out of its usual contexts so readers become temporary analysts of their own family lives. The book draws its title from an Alice Munro short story — Aviv's investigation into abuse connected to Munro partly prompted the collection — and opens with a personal preface about her own writer mother, alongside reflections on her earlier work and her childhood anorexia diagnosis.
- Rachel Aviv's new essay collection reframes reported stories around mothers and daughters.
- She deliberately avoids sentimental, clichu00e9d writing about motherhood.
- The title comes from an Alice Munro short story.
Read the full article at the source →
Originally published by The Guardian as “Rachel Aviv: ‘There’s a way of writing about motherhood that can be very sentimental and boring’”.