Any parent may ask "What's the connection between my youthful self and the old fart my kids think I am?" For Evelyn McDonnell, a Janie-come-lately breeder looking back on her bohemian, feminist, punk-rock glory days, the question took her down an introspective road filled with pop epiphanies and baby spew.

"Is the new me still the old me?" McDonnell wondered. The answer is yes: A baby changes everything but your self. Though she may no longer write fanzines or engage in political performance art, McDonnell's revolutionary spirit is strengthened by having added investment in the future-her toddler son and teenaged stepdaughters.

As she makes the transformation from Riot Grrrl to Rebel Mom, this music journalist gives an eye-witness account of the cultural movements of the '90s, from alternative rock and third-wave feminism to hip-hop, raves, poetry, and Rent. Through this pop-culture lens she confronts the conventions and pressures of modern motherhood. Part of an emerging generation of cultural commentators and memoirists, McDonnell adds an original, humorous, and edgy voice to the ongoing literature of motherhood.

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"This is an exhilarating story of one woman's quest for coolness: as a rebel, a rock writer, a New York hipster, a Miami mom. If you've ever loved music, questioned authority, or wanted to be a pirate instead of a princess, Mamarama is essential reading."
-- Julie Phillips, author of James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon

"In Mamarama, Evelyn McDonnell delivers a bouncing, bawling, sprawling portrait of her generation. As a rock critic, she has a finely-tuned ear for the riffs and refrains of evolving popular culture: the backlash,
irony, and cross-pollination from which we each learn to make sense of the world. But then McDonnell trains these critical skills on the vicissitudes of her own life. The result is moving and surprising-a familiar lick performed in an entirely revolutionary way."
-- Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home: A Tragicomic

"This is a punk-rock love letter to rocker chicks, the f-word, wayward teens, Midwest lugs, hip-hop, and, finally, a little man who awakened Evelyn McDonnell's dormant mom genes and touched her revolution grrrl
heart. We thank her journalistic ass for keeping notes all these years."
-- Lynn Breedlove, author of Godspeed

"A heartfelt treatise on punk motherhood, Mamarama is a great name for a band---a generation of riotmoms transforming parenting roles like they once stormed the mosh pit. A new feminist-womanist breed of breeders is emerging, the great goddesses are rejoicing, and our mother's gardens
are blooming."
-- Donna Gaines, Ph.D., author, A Misfit's Manifesto and Teenage
Wasteland

> Read an exerpt from Mamarama