Mother Daughter Me
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The complex, deeply binding relationship between mothers and daughters is brought vividly to life in Katie Hafner's memoir of the year she and her mother Helen spent working through, and triumphing over, a lifetime of unresolved emotions. Katie urged Helen, set in her ways at 77, to move to San Francisco to live with her and Zoë, Katie's teenage daughter. Filled with fairy-tale hope that she and her mother would become friends, and that Helen would grow close to her exceptional granddaughter, Katie embarked on an experiment in intergenerational living that she would soon discover was filled with land mines. How these three women from such different generations learn to navigate their challenging, turbulent, and ultimately healing journey together makes for riveting reading.--From publisher description.
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I received this ARC through a First Reads giveaway
The author holds no punches in the telling of her bitter upbringing by her alcoholic mother. As her mother ages and is left alone in the world, the author seizes the moment to move her mother in with her and her teenage daughter in the hopes of mending their rocky relationship. Unresolved issues and feelings of abandonment make for a stressful living arrangement, and regular trips to family therapy don't seem to help. A death in the family, along with the mother's decision to move out, help to put things in perspective and the women slowly begin to take steps in the right direction. This is a story of heartbreak and how sometimes letting go of anger and hate can bring in understanding and welcome friendship and contentment.
Favorite quotes from this read:
“considering that, all hatred driven hence, the soul recovers radical innocence.” –William Butler Yeats, “A Prayer for My Daughter”
”I love you more than my arms could ever stretch.” - Author to her daughter (in the acknowledgements)