Mobility (2023) by Lydia Kiesling

 Audiobook Review

Mobility (2023)

by Lydia Kiesling

  I checked the Audiobook of Mobility, the 2023 novel by American author Lydia Kieling after seeing it described as "the perfect novel for the Baku climate summit" in the New York Times last month.  I was intrigued at the idea that an American author, a woman, no less, had written a novel that was at least partially set in Baku- which sounded far more interesting than the usual:  books written about women struggling to live in America, either dealing with abusive fathers, husbands or partners, struggling with issues surrounding family, career and child-birth.   That is, in my experience, an accurate description of 90% of literary fiction written by American women.  My literary travels through the United States via the 1,001 Novels: A Library of America project have left me with a profound lack of interest in the issues surrounding raising children in the USA.   Both in books in my experiences in real life it seems simply insane how OBSESSED "normal" parents are with every aspect of their child and its development, this despite the fact that basically every child is exactly the same (don't tell this to a parent!)

   Mobility, on the other hand is picaresque with a young woman, Elizabeth (or "Bunny" as she is known as an adolescent).  When we meet her she is a shy teen, the daughter of an American diplomat posted to Baku close to the end of the Soviet era.  Mobility follows her life as a young and then middle aged adult, where she works her way up the ladder of a privately owned "Energy Services" company while trying to navigate adult relationships and her Mom, who kind of falls apart after a divorce from her diplomat father.   It's not heavy lifting but it is nice to read about a female protagonist who has her act together.