Tori Haschka

Stella Prentice feels like she is drowning. With her husband, Felix, rarely home, she’s struggling to manage her full time career as a brand manager for an upmarket grocery chain while raising her bright four year old, Natalie, and resentful teenage stepdaughter, Georgia, along with fulfilling life’s everyday tasks. Stella’s friends amongst her well-off Northern beaches community insist that a live in au pair is the life raft she needs, but will it be enough to save a sinking ship?

Set within the same community as Tori Haschka’s debut novel, Grace Under Pressure, A Recipe for Family shares the exploration of similar themes such as work/life balance, marriage, motherhood, family, friendship and the stresses of modern living.

As an overwhelmed working wife and mother, Stella is an easy character to relate to as she attempts to juggle the demands on her time, struggling with guilt and resentment when she inevitably drops a ball. Hiring an au pair is an impulsive move, and though Stella is hopeful it will work out, she is uncomfortable with the arrangement. Subsumed by her own issues however, Stella does not handle the situation well, and her relationship with Ava becomes increasingly strained.

I felt very sorry for Ava, still grieving the recent loss of her mother, she is very far from home, and still so young. Ava attempts to draw comfort and advice from notes and recipes left to her by her late mother, but it quickly becomes clear, though she bonds well with Natalie and Georgia, that she doesn’t quite have the maturity or experience to negotiate the awkward situation she finds herself in.

There’s also a third narrative strand in A Recipe for Family which involves Stella’s mother-in-law, Elise. I liked the character, and enjoyed many of her observations, but I didn’t feel the features of her storyline fit comfortably in the novel. I thought the glimpses into the lives of Stella’s and Ava’s friends and acquaintances were more relevant, providing some interesting context and contrast to their circumstances.

Food, and in particular its associations with motherhood, is a linking motif in the novel, from Stella’s repeated attempts to connect with Georgia by preparing meals to honour her stepdaughter’s late mother, to the comfort food Stella prepares for herself at a low point, to the recipes that Ava cooks for the Prentice’s. I think many of us have at least one recipe that serves as a connection to family - for me, it’s my mother’s meatloaf, and I enjoyed this aspect of the novel. I also really liked that Haschka thoughtfully includes the recipes mentioned through the story in full.

Warmly written, with relatable characters, and thoughtful observations, A Recipe of Family is an engaging novel. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the last few lines of the novel had quite the unexpected kick, and I hope that Haschka decides to explore its consequences, (particularly for Eve) next.… (plus d'informations)

Grace Under Pressure is a witty, wise and warm debut novel from Tori Haschka about motherhood, marriage, friendship, and modern life.

With the world’s worst, or perhaps best, timing the lives of three friends, Grace, Petra and Shelly all implode on practically the same day. Seeking solace and support, the women, with five (and a bit) young children between them, decide to create their own ‘mummune’ - sharing Grace’s Northern Beaches home, the bills, childcare, cooking, and all the other ‘life admin’ tasks mothers manage daily. The arrangement seems like it could be the perfect answer to the pressures the three are under, but perfection is a fragile thing.

Many mothers will find their experiences reflected in the protagonists of Grace Under Pressure, as I did, whether it’s the attempt to juggle work/life balance, to overcome sleep deprivation, to cope with post-natal anxiety, or the pressure to do everything right, particularly under the critical gaze of peers and social media. In theory the idea of a ‘mummune’ seems excellent, there is truth to the old adage, ‘it takes a village’, and Grace, Petra and Shelly, with a little advice from neighbour Christine, find a rhythm that benefits all of them, but maintaining it proves a little trickier than they expect.

When we are introduced to Grace, the central character, she appears to have it all - a beautiful beachside home, a handsome globe-trotting husband, two cherubic children, and a successful career as the author of four popular wholefood cookbooks - she lives a life carefully curated for Instagram. But when she unexpectedly falls pregnant with her third child, the facade begins to falter, and the pressure to maintain it threatens to break her. I felt desperately sorry for Grace who is so caught up in who she thinks she should be, that she’s lost who she is. Haschka does a great job of portraying Grace’s external, and internal struggles to meet the mythic standard that motherhood, in fact womanhood, is expected to achieve.

Of course the other two ‘mummune’ members, Petra and Shelly, share similar anxieties, though are far less consumed by them. Petra, Grace’s best friend since college, is too furious at her husband for not only gambling away their life savings but also for hitting her when she confronted him with the truth, and too focused on forging a life of her own to worry much about what anyone thinks. It was Shelly I probably had the most affinity for, not only because we share a name, but my eldest daughter was also born after a long labour (and then an emergency caesarean) and she too was not a ‘sleeper’, though unlike Shelly, I thankfully had a husband who could occasionally gave me a break. In terms of parenting philosophy however, I had/have much more in common with Grace’s neighbour, Christine. While she had twins, I had 3 children in 3 years (plus an elder child), so pragmatism was more important to me than perfectionism when they were all younger.

This is a strong debut from Haschka who captures the madness of modern motherhood. Well written, with relatable characters, and plenty of moments that made me laugh, cringe, and sigh in recognition, I really enjoyed reading Grace Under Pressure.… (plus d'informations)