07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Book Review: ‘Second Life,' by Amanda Hess
SECOND LIFE: Having a Child in the Digital Age, by Amanda Hess
In 1997's 'Surrendering to Motherhood,' the baby boomer writer Iris Krasnow jettisoned Ram Dass and journalism to find full-time enlightenment in her four joyously Fudgsicle-smeared sons. A decade later, in 'Alternadad,' the Gen X-er Neal Pollack exposed his fetus to Beck; come new fatherhood, to stay cool, the writer started a band. Now, millennials join the parenting memoir canon, notably via Amanda Hess's engrossing 'Second Life: Having a Child in the Digital Age.'
Described by the A.I.-penned as 'a woman of average stature with son Alma born in October 2020' (both name and month, she wryly notes, are inaccurate), Hess is actually a New York Times critic at large on pop culture and the internet. So it's fitting that the obsessively phone-swiping, not-particularly-maternal Hess begins her motherhood journey on an app.
It's a menstrual tracker, aptly named Flo, who dispenses quasi-scientific girl-boss advice throughout the month — flagging Day 21 as an opportunity 'to tackle thorny conversations with colleagues or managers.' Flo also tags Hess's days of ovulation in blue, awakening her muffled ticking clock.
