Mother of my Mother
Synopsis:
In her acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Motherless Daughters, Hope Edelman explored the profound and lasting effects of mother loss, as well as her own search for healing. Now, in her compelling new work, Edelman explores another complex, life-changing relationship, the intricate bond between generations.
Drawing from her own experience and the recollections of over seventy other granddaughters, Edelman explores the three-generation triangle from which women develop their female identities: the grandmother-mother-daughter relationship. With eloquent personal testimony, she demonstrates the vital roles grandmothers have played in their granddaughters' lives, as a source of unconditional love, family values and traditions, and backup parent, the ultimate safety net.
Book Excerpt:
My grandmother lived in a town called Mount Vernon, and for most of my early childhood I thought that meant George Washington had once been her neighbor. There was a legitimate old-world feel to her street: gabled roofs, imposing oak trees, trellises, gazebos. Her house was a Cape Cod-style with a century-old maple tree anchored near the curb. Inside, the walls were painted slate blue and the blinds always drawn, and the living room smelled of electric heat and boiled chicken and week-old fruit slowly going soft in a large wooden bowl. My mother bounced her right foot anxiously whenever she sat in the room and my father had to step outside periodically for fresh air, but even when my grandfather sat in his salmon upholstered lounge chair and trapped me between his crossed ankles, refusing to release me until I said the magic words, Open sesame, I never felt the desperate need to escape. I drew great comfort from a room where the walnuts on the end table were the same walnuts I'd seen there last year, a room where the type of holiday cards displayed on the mantel were the only evidence of the passage of time.
Topics/Categories:
Adolescence, Death, early parent loss, Grief, Illness, Loss, Motherless women, Mothers and Daughters, Nonfiction, orphan archetype, Psychology, Relationships, Self-Help, Women’s Interests
Genre:
General Women's Studies - Interest, Motherhood, Women's Studies - Interest
Type of Work:
Publishers:
Purchase From:
- Share With:
