01/26/2015
In this finely wrought memoir, Cohen (What I Thought I Knew) handles nearly overwhelming events. Her adopted-at-birth daughter, now 18, finally reconnects with her birth mother. Cohen’s biological daughter, whose conception was a surprise because of Cohen’s diagnosis of early-stage breast cancer and the consequent hormone treatments, has to undergo a difficult leg-lengthening surgery at age eight to correct a birth defect that Cohen feels responsible for causing. Through this prism, Cohen remembers her own mother, Louise, who passed away 30 years prior. Cohen takes readers on a journey through her immediate travails, as well as through her troubled childhood dealing with a mother whose own battle with cancer transformed her emotionally and physically. Cohen’s mother was a trailblazing champion of civil rights, an early feminist who bemoaned the trappings of a stay-at-home motherhood and fought for her intellectual life. Cohen ultimately gets closure with her mother, who gives her advice beyond the grave about how to be a better mother, how to face cancer, and how, ultimately, to be a daughter who finally finds peace with the complex woman who had more of an impact on her life than she ever realized. (Mar.)
Thirty years after her death, Alice's mother appears to her, seemingly in the flesh, and continues to do so during the hardest year Alice has had to face: the year her youngest daughter needs surgery, her eldest daughter decides to track down her birth mother, and the year Alice gets a daunting diagnosis. As it turns out, it's entirely possible for the people we've lost to come back to us when we need them the most.
Although letting her mother back into her life is not an easy thing, Alice navigates it with humor, intelligence, and honesty. What she learns is that she must revisit her childhood, and allow herself to be a daughter once more, in order to take care of her own girls. Eventually, understanding and then forgiving her mother's parenting transgressions leads her to accept herself and to the realization that she doesn't have to be perfect to be a good mother.
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Although letting her mother back into her life is not an easy thing, Alice navigates it with humor, intelligence, and honesty. What she learns is that she must revisit her childhood, and allow herself to be a daughter once more, in order to take care of her own girls. Eventually, understanding and then forgiving her mother's parenting transgressions leads her to accept herself and to the realization that she doesn't have to be perfect to be a good mother.
The Year My Mother Came Back
Thirty years after her death, Alice's mother appears to her, seemingly in the flesh, and continues to do so during the hardest year Alice has had to face: the year her youngest daughter needs surgery, her eldest daughter decides to track down her birth mother, and the year Alice gets a daunting diagnosis. As it turns out, it's entirely possible for the people we've lost to come back to us when we need them the most.
Although letting her mother back into her life is not an easy thing, Alice navigates it with humor, intelligence, and honesty. What she learns is that she must revisit her childhood, and allow herself to be a daughter once more, in order to take care of her own girls. Eventually, understanding and then forgiving her mother's parenting transgressions leads her to accept herself and to the realization that she doesn't have to be perfect to be a good mother.
Although letting her mother back into her life is not an easy thing, Alice navigates it with humor, intelligence, and honesty. What she learns is that she must revisit her childhood, and allow herself to be a daughter once more, in order to take care of her own girls. Eventually, understanding and then forgiving her mother's parenting transgressions leads her to accept herself and to the realization that she doesn't have to be perfect to be a good mother.
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Product Details
BN ID: | 2940171738921 |
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Publisher: | HighBridge Company |
Publication date: | 03/31/2015 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |
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