AustLit logo
image of person or book cover 8726591715646831768.jpg
This image has been sourced from online.
y separately published work icon A Better Woman single work   autobiography  
Alternative title: A Better Woman : A Memoir; A Better Woman : The Writing Life, Motherhood and the Body
Issue Details: First known date: 1999... 1999 A Better Woman
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'"If I had known...what giving birth was to cost me, would I have dared to fall pregnant?Yes, yes. A thousand times, yes."Accalaimed novelist Susan Johnson found, at age thirty-five, that her arms began to feel "empty." Soon her desire to have a baby became overwhelming. She had no inkling then what motherhood would cost her -- or give her. But as she went on to experience pregnancy and birth, and their impact on her marriage, her health, and her heart, she recorded it all in a black-and-red notebook. Here, Susan Johnson takes that raw, potentially wrenching material and creates an inspirational work of autobiography.In a hauntingly lovely account, Johnson portrays a woman transformed by motherhood, and a writer forever changed by a widening chasm of experience. Simple acts such as getting her newborn to breastfeed prove unexpectedly difficult. The husband she adores becomes a sparring partner, their newly purchased home a disaster, her time to write nonexistent. Then, just when she believes she may be getting her life together, she becomes pregnant again.Soon ecstasy jostles against bewilderment, rage, and despair when she develops a rare complication of childbirth. Facing major surgery, Susan calls herself "a one-woman catastrophe, a small ruined country." She is also going to bed at night planning what she will write in the morning, burning to get words on paper.The mesmerizing narrative she created is "A Better Woman," a chronicle of love and courage, by turns poetic and searingly graphic. It should be required reading for every woman hungry to give birth -- and every mother yearning to have her deepest feeling heard.' (Publication summary)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Random House , 1999 .
      image of person or book cover 8726591715646831768.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: xvi, 256p.p.
      ISBN: 0091835526
    • London,
      c
      England,
      c
      c
      United Kingdom (UK),
      c
      Western Europe, Europe,
      :
      Aurum ,
      2000 .
      image of person or book cover 5430192465474183306.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 256p.
      ISBN: 1854106996 (pbk.)
    • Milsons Point, North Sydney - Lane Cove area, Sydney Northern Suburbs, Sydney, New South Wales,: Random House Australia , 2000 .
      image of person or book cover 6183377613337531873.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: xiv, 257pp.
      ISBN: 0091835518
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Washington Square Press ,
      2002 .
      image of person or book cover 5703866412609650762.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: xiv, 257p.p.
      ISBN: 0743432967
Alternative title: Jestem inna jestem lepsza : pamitnik
Language: Polish
    • Warsaw,
      c
      Poland,
      c
      Eastern Europe, Europe,
      :
      Klub dla Ciebie ,
      2002 .
      image of person or book cover 3993270365333796633.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 232p.
      ISBN: 8389076748

Other Formats

Works about this Work

Between Two Worlds: A Narrative of the Split Self Kay Torney Souter , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southern Postcolonialisms: The Global South and the 'New' Literary Representations 2009; (p. 196-204)
The Maternal Heroine Jane Messer , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cultural Studies Review , March vol. 11 no. 1 2005; (p. 129-141)
Charmian, George and Susan, Too Aviva Tuffield , 2004 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 4 December 2004; (p. 3)
Words to Conjure With : Non-Fiction Stephanie Holt , Michael George Smith , 2000 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 5 August 2000; (p. 7)
Bearing This New Life, a Painful Journey of Self-Discovery Dianne Dempsey , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 24 July 1999; (p. 9)

— Review of A Better Woman Susan Johnson , 1999 single work autobiography
Written on the Body Veronica Sen , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Canberra Times , 21 August 1999; (p. 21)

— Review of A Better Woman Susan Johnson , 1999 single work autobiography
Artful Care Jane Messer , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , October no. 215 1999; (p. 6-7)

— Review of A Better Woman Susan Johnson , 1999 single work autobiography
Embodied Louise Adler , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Australian's Review of Books , September vol. 4 no. 8 1999; (p. 6-7)

— Review of A Better Woman Susan Johnson , 1999 single work autobiography
Bearing This New Life, a Painful Journey of Self-Discovery Dianne Dempsey , 1999 single work review
— Appears in: The Age , 24 July 1999; (p. 9)

— Review of A Better Woman Susan Johnson , 1999 single work autobiography
Charmian, George and Susan, Too Aviva Tuffield , 2004 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 4 December 2004; (p. 3)
The Maternal Heroine Jane Messer , 2005 single work criticism
— Appears in: Cultural Studies Review , March vol. 11 no. 1 2005; (p. 129-141)
Between Two Worlds: A Narrative of the Split Self Kay Torney Souter , 2009 single work criticism
— Appears in: Southern Postcolonialisms: The Global South and the 'New' Literary Representations 2009; (p. 196-204)
Words to Conjure With : Non-Fiction Stephanie Holt , Michael George Smith , 2000 single work column
— Appears in: The Age , 5 August 2000; (p. 7)
Last amended 29 Jun 2020 14:04:17
X