Like Mother, Like Daughter - Hardcover

Rose, Marcia

3.43

35 ratings by Goodreads

9780345387691: Like Mother, Like Daughter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345387694 ISBN 13: 9780345387691

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1994

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

A sweeping saga of four generations of women, played out against a passionate portrait of America in the twentieth century, from "free love" in Greenwich Village to the Summer of Love in San Francisco, from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York to the fires of the London Blitz. Here is the engrossing story of Leah Vogel Lazarus, the matriarch of a family of women whose lives and loves become the rich tapestry of Marcia Rose's most dazzling novel . . . .

Leah -- Her gift for words propelled her from New York's Lower East Side into the bohemian life of Greenwich Village in the 1920s, a world ripe with intellectual and artistic ideas, wine, laughter, and love. Her passion and sensuality were fired by the love of two men . . . and by her crusades against injustice and poverty.

Jo -- World War II England was ripe for exposure, and Jo's stark photographs of the Blitz propelled her to fame. But behind the camera, her fairy tale marriage to an RAF officer was a hideous masquerade. Why had she run away from herself . . . and everything that she was?

Sarah -- A singer, she lived for the hushed and attentive listeners, the spotlight, and the music that calmed the discontent pervading her life. She embraced the sixties in all their kaleidoscopic glory only to discover that freedom was a prison -- and the baby girl who looked at her with her father's eyes only reminded her of all she had lost.

Annie -- Growing up in the shadow of one of the world's most beautiful, enigmatic women, Annie found salvation as a comedian, sure that her humor would make the whole world laugh and love her. Bright, funny, lovely, she forged a special relationship with her great-grandmother -- one that sustained them both through turbulent times . . . .

Four women, unique yet alike, strong yet vulnerable. Courage, passion, and exuberance would mark each one as her mother's daughter.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews:

From bestselling author Rose (Hospital, not reviewed, etc.) comes a quasi-feminist saga of four strong women's lives from the turn of the century to the present. Abandoned at age six by her mentally incompetent mother, feisty Leah Vogel makes her own way in New York City. She has a dreary job at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, but soon meets Joe Lazarus, a handsome, smooth-talking photographer who takes her picture one night at Coney Island. The two set up bohemian housekeeping in Greenwich Village, where Leah becomes a writer and grapples with the emotional conflicts created by Joe's attachment to the concept of free love. Then comes the First World War. Leah gets pregnant; Joe dies in action without ever seeing his daughter, Joanna, who grows up to be a talented and spunky photographer. Traveling to Europe in the 1940s to photograph the horrors of war, Joanna falls madly in love with and marries the classy Peter Fielding. But life as the spouse of an English lord is none too satisfying, since Peter would rather be in bed with his male best friend than his wife, and Joanna flees to the US with her two small children. Little Timmy contracts polio and dies; his sister, Sarah, grows up to be a skilled though tortured singer. Sarah dabbles in drugs and the hippie scene for a while, then has a baby girl, Annie, whom she abandons to the care of great-grandmother Leah. Eventually, reconciliations are made all around, and the loose ends nicely tied up. Initially weighed down with clich‚s and a sluggish pace, the novel gets better as it goes along. The WW II scenes are exciting, and the author's descriptions of life on an English manor are funny and apt, though her horror of homosexuality seems outdated and inappropriate. An enjoyable, if predictable, read. (Literary Guild alternate selection) -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

"You don't need a man to take care of you" is the family motto of the heroines in Rose's ( The Hospital ) new novel, a motto they all learn the hard way in order to survive. Spanning four generations and two continents, this competently crafted saga traces the lives of four strong, talented and passionate women and their relationships as mothers and daughters. Young Russian-Jewish immigrant Leah Lazarus narrowly escapes death in New York City's Triangle Factory Fire of 1910 and then joins the bohemian world of Greenwich Village. Her daughter, Jo McCready, drops out of college and establishes herself as a photographer during the London Blitz but hides her true identity and her religion in order to marry a titled British pilot. Though she finally frees herself from their unhappy union, the estrangement between mother and daughter cannot be healed. Jo's daughter, Sarah Fielding, also escapes into art; but on the brink of stardom as a singer, she lets men sabotage her career. When Sarah abandons her daughter, Annie, Leah raises the child. Independent and headstrong like all the women in her family, Annie is determined to reconcile her mother and her great-grandmother. Rose has a gift for strong characterization, though her heroines are shaped to fit the theme here--that the mother-daughter relationship supercedes any liaison with men. The narrative is sometimes slow, and a few passages veer into melodrama. On the whole, however, Rose offers a satisfying emotional fix, nicely grounded in historical detail. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.