The Seasons of My Mother: A Memoir of Love, Family, and Flowers

by Marcia Gay Harden Narrated by Marcia Gay Harden

Overview

In this lyrical and deeply moving memoir, one of America's most revered actresses weaves stories of her adventures and travels with her mother, while reflecting on the beautiful spirit that persists even in the face of her mother's struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

Marcia Gay Harden knew at a young age that her life would be anything but ordinary. One of five lively children born to two Texas natives-Beverly, a proper Dallas lady, and Thad, a young naval officer-she always had a knack for storytelling, role-playing, and adventure. As a military family, the Hardens moved often, and their travels eventually took them to Yokohama, off the coast of Japan, during the Vietnam War era. It was here that Beverly, amid the many challenges of raising her family abroad, found her own self-expression in ikebana, the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging.

Using the philosophy of ikebana as her starting point, Marcia Gay Harden intertwines the seasons of her mother's life with her own journey from precocious young girl to budding artist in New York City to Academy Award-winning actress. With a razor-sharp wit, as well as the kind of emotional honesty that has made her performances resonate with audiences worldwide, Marcia captures the joys and losses of life even as her precious mother gracefully strives to maintain her identity while coming to grips with Alzheimer's disease.

Powerful and incredibly stirring, The Seasons of My Mother illustrates the unforgettable vulnerability and beauty of motherhood, as Marcia does what Beverly can no longer do: she remembers.

Editorial Reviews

JUNE 2018 - AudioFile

Actor Marcia Gay Harden's voice radiates love in her unusual memoir. Using her mother's expertise in Ikebana, Japanese flower arranging, as a frame, she gathers a touching collection of significant moments from her own life. While there are a few reminiscences about the Oscars and life on the set, this isn't a peek into Hollywood glamour. Her mother, Beverly, is the constant star as Harden’s lyrical prose meanders back and forth in time from her upbringing in a globe-trotting naval family through her struggles as an actor and then to her career success, with all the ups and downs involved. Harden's tone is even and gentle, only occasionally becoming a frustrated growl under her breath when she voices self-doubts and her frustration with her mother's descent into Alzheimer's. The listening experience is intimate and inspiring. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

03/19/2018
The devotion and heartbreak of a loving mother-daughter relationship are captured with affection and precision in this graceful memoir. Harden, an Academy Award–winning actress (Pollock), began writing the life story of her mother, Beverly, alongside her own after Beverly’s 2011 Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Beverly was passionate about ikebana (the ancient art of Japanese flower arrangement), and, in Harden’s telling, both women led relatively ordinary lives: they married, had children, found meaning in travel, and took joy in family. She narrates the story by seasons of her mother’s life, describing her essence in each one (in spring, “my mother is a brightly ribboned maypole”). Descriptions of ikebana arrangements tell Beverly’s story: a military wife with five children who grew into a self-directed woman, her strength is “like a willow branch. Bendable, flexible, yet unbreakable.” Harden is optimistic in the face of Alzheimer’s: “When all is said and done—even without memory—what still exists is love.” The connection between daughter and mother becomes even richer during “the great migration of age,” when “the children become the caregivers.” Harden delivers a love letter to her mother, in which the extraordinary elements of her ordinary life shine through. (May)

From the Publisher

A fiercely loving and tender tribute to Marcia Gay Harden’s mother, remembering for her and for us what Alzheimer’s has stolen, filling those darkened holes with compassion, acceptance, beauty, and love. I savored every page and didn’t want it to end.”— Lisa Genova, New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice and Every Note Played

“What a surprise to find that Marcia Gay Harden is as talented a writer as she is an actress. She has given us a heartbreakingly beautiful account of a devoted daughter coping with her lovely mother’s slow slide into Alzheimer’s. The book is like Marcia Gay herself – smart, charming, strong, funny, and vulnerable. Among other things, her account of Oscar night when she won for Best Supporting Actress made me laugh and cry at the same time. An elegantly-written, intelligent, and enjoyable read.”—Ellen Burstyn, Academy Award-winning actress and New York Times bestselling author of Lessons in Becoming Myself

“Honest, courageous, and often very funny, The Seasons of My Mother is an unforgettable testament to the unique endurance of the mother-daughter bond. I loved this book.”—Rob Lowe, Emmy Award-winning actor and New York Times bestselling author of Stories I Only Tell My Friends and Love Life

"From the start of this book there is something facing a time and place new to me, speaking a language Marcia is teaching me to understand: I promise you, you have not been here before. If motherhood has a destiny, it is the beautiful life on this road, in these fields, on these pages, where a great actor has told us a true story about her mother and the intelligence and happiness surrounding it."—Alvin Sargent, Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Julia and Ordinary People

"Praise, love, and honor all play roles in this respectful, highly affectionate memoir about a spirited mother-daughter relationship."—Kirkus Reviews

"Marcia Gay Harden makes a literary statement with this moving story of her relationship with her mother, who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer’s."—Entertainment Weekly

“Poignant, beautiful . . . . Replete with emotionally resonant scenes, humor, and tales of Harden’s own journey as an actor, The Seasons of My Mother is both inspirational and devastating, a touching tribute to a remarkable woman.”—Booklist

“The devotion and heartbreak of a loving mother-daughter relationship are captured with affection and precision in this graceful memoir. Harden delivers a love letter to her mother, in which the extraordinary elements of her ordinary life shine through.”—Publishers Weekly

“The Oscar-winning actress showcases lyrical writing in this heartbreaking memoir.”— Entertainment Weekly

“Throughout this lush and lyrical memoir, Harden aptly demonstrates how her mother is ‘living’ with the disease and not ‘suffering’ from it....On every page of this moving, reverent and gorgeously written book, she has resplendently succeeded.”— Bookreporter.com

“[F]lowers and their meaning run through this intergenerational story, organized around the seasons and the blooms they bring to mind, Marcia’s childhood and her sometimes-spiky relationship with her parents. The description of her mother’s drift into the limbo of Alzheimer’s will be familiar to anyone dealing with a family member who has dementia, but the author sees through what has been lost....There is beauty here, and tragedy....But as an actor, Harden uses the persuasive strength of her voice to inhabit every line.”— New York Times

Library Journal

11/15/2016
As Harden's mother is battling Alzheimer's and cannot recall her life, Harden does it for her, blending in accounts of her own rise to Tony- and Academy Award-winning stature. Framed by images of the Japanese flower arranging her mother so loved.

JUNE 2018 - AudioFile

Actor Marcia Gay Harden's voice radiates love in her unusual memoir. Using her mother's expertise in Ikebana, Japanese flower arranging, as a frame, she gathers a touching collection of significant moments from her own life. While there are a few reminiscences about the Oscars and life on the set, this isn't a peek into Hollywood glamour. Her mother, Beverly, is the constant star as Harden’s lyrical prose meanders back and forth in time from her upbringing in a globe-trotting naval family through her struggles as an actor and then to her career success, with all the ups and downs involved. Harden's tone is even and gentle, only occasionally becoming a frustrated growl under her breath when she voices self-doubts and her frustration with her mother's descent into Alzheimer's. The listening experience is intimate and inspiring. S.T.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2018-02-26
An Oscar-winning actress pays tribute to her mother.When Harden's mother began to show signs of Alzheimer's disease, Harden decided to try to capture her memories before they were gone. In this soulful memoir, she pays homage to the woman who raised her. She tells stories from her earliest childhood days to the present and emphasizes the beliefs and values her mother instilled in her. Harden narrates chronologically, using the seasons as metaphors for the various stages in life. Chronicling her early life, she describes how her father's work in the Navy required the family to move around, including stops in California, Greece, and Japan. While they were living in Japan, her mother learned the Japanese art of flower arranging, ikebana, an artistic method of flower placement that incorporates three principle ideas: heaven, earth, and man. Ikebana was clearly Harden's mother's passion, and the author skillfully blends in descriptions of the flower arrangements her mother made and the classes she taught on ikebana. She offers tales of how her mother gently encouraged her to audition for a play, which began her successful acting career; of going to the Academy Awards; and of traveling through New Zealand with her mom instead of her boyfriend. It's abundantly clear that her mother was there for Harden through the good and the bad, so the knowledge that those memories no longer exist for her mother are especially heartbreaking. In keeping with the author's flower and gardening motif, she describes her mother's condition as "a weed run wild, slowly choking the path to memory." One of her few points of solace is the fact that her mother "has somehow managed to keep [her dignity]. Her appreciation of beauty remains as a purifier for her spirit."Praise, love, and honor all play roles in this respectful, highly affectionate memoir about a spirited mother-daughter relationship.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170803125
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	05/01/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	974,634

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