Fatherless Daughters: Turning the Pain of Loss into the Power of Forgiveness - Hardcover

Thomas, Pamela

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 074320557X ISBN 13: 9780743205573

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2009

Synopsis

A moving, elegantly written, impressively researched book about what it means to lose a father to death or divorce, with advice for fatherless daughters on how to cope.

• An important topic: many books have been written about parental loss—specifically mother loss on daughters and father loss on sons—but few have explored the profound emotional, intellectual, and physical effects of father loss on girls. These effects can be devastating, coloring a fatherless daughter’s attitudes on love, marriage, parenting, career, and physical and emotional well-being. Fatherless Daughters brings this problem out of the shadows and helps women clearly see how father loss has affected their lives and what they can do about it.

• A mosaic of perspectives: Pamela Thomas, whose own father died when she was ten years old, interviewed more than 100 women who have lost their fathers in a variety of circumstances—through death, divorce, and abandonment— and at every age, from birth to late teens. Each story is unique (and many of them are included here, including the author’s own), but the common threads that run through them will inspire both recognition and relief in readers.

• Prescriptive and supportive: Divided into four sections—“ Fathering,” “Shock,” “Aftershock,” and “Coming to Terms”—Fatherless Daughters traces the experience of growing up without a father from the initial trauma of losing him, to the reverberations years later that reflect the impact of his loss. Thomas offers advice on ways women can come to terms with their loss, including getting to know one’s lost father, even if he has passed away. Filled with wisdom, Fatherless Daughters guides readers through their pain to a place of strength, hope, and grace.

About this title

About the Author

Pamela Thomas has been a writer and book editor for more than thirty-five years. She is a part-time book editor at Sesame Workshop and lives in New York City.

Reviews

Book editor Thomas was ten years old when her father died, and she's struggled to make sense of that loss for more than 50 years. Weaving theory and testimony into a diagnostic text with a general prescription for healing, Thomas examines women coping with the loss of a father, through death or divorce. In four sections-"Fathering," "Shock," "Aftershock," and "Coming to Terms"-Thomas confronts the idealization of the father, resentment toward his loss, the reaction of family members and potential impact on future relationships, among other angles. Aside from her own story and the work of psychologists, analysts and social scientists, Thomas's primary research material comes from interviews she conducted with more than100 grown women. Unfortunately, the similarities among Thomas's subjects (affluent and middle-class women of a similar age) and the insularity of her sources limit readers' exposure to the true spectrum of loss. Relying on familiar narratives of pain and recovery, Thomas may offer some comfort and counsel, but fails to capture the issue's full dimensions.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 074320557X
• ISBN 13: 9780743205573
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 336