Loss of the Ground-Note: Women Writing About the Loss of Their Mothers

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Most of the entries in this collection of 34 short essays by women about their mothers' deaths are heartfelt and effective. "The mother-daughter relationship is one of the most charged, complex and crucial relationships women will ever have," asserts Vozenilek, a San Francisco freelance writer. Included are voices of strong feminists, lesbians and women of color, but little mention is made, for example, of the role of traditional religion in weathering loss. Joan Campbell has nightmares about her dying mother but gains unexpected strength from her young son; Rose Mary Fandel frankly describes how she gave a fatal dose of laudanum to her mother, who requested it when dying of liver cancer. Susan Christian wonders whether her mother's early death contributed to her own rootlessness; Arupa Chiarini confronts her post-traumatic stress syndrome--"a fancy name for having no one to talk to"--after the death of a mother who had rejected her. Karen Kandik, discussing the progress of grief, gradually recognizes that "being without a mother is what is 'normal' for me."
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The stories in this book, each dealing with the death of the writer's mother, are grouped into four sections: those written by daughters who were present at or near the time of death; those whose mothers died unexpectedly; those who continued to deal with memories and lingering images that in some instances haunted them; and those who were able to integrate aspects of their mothers' lives into their own. While the stories are all interesting, they are of uneven quality, ranging from the immediate and compelling to the overstated and consequently less moving. Especially fine are accounts by Lu Vickers, Arupa Chiarini, Roslyn Lund, and Patricia Flinn. In any event, readers will find enough to choose from to suit their interests.
- Bonnie Hoffman, Stony Brook,
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.