Today is
Mother’s Day so I thought I’d highlight a short story anthology entitled Mothers and Daughters edited by Alberto
Manguel. The 20 stories explore the
mother-daughter connection. Some authors
featured are Daphne du Maurier, Louise
Erdrich, Katherine Mansfield, Carson McCullers, and Edith Wharton.
In
"Mama," Dorothy Allison reflects on her mother's life by remembering
the physical details of her mother's body and comparing them to her own:
"Nothing marks me so much her daughter as my hands--the way they are
aging, the veins coming up through skin already thin. I tell myself they are
beautiful as they recreate my mama's flesh in mine."
Sara
Jeannette Duncan's "A Mother in India" questions the biological bond
between mother and daughter.
In
"Lolita," Dorothy Parker turns her eye to a social butterfly mother
and her drab, shapeless daughter who ends up winning the chisel-jawed
heartthrob.
In Bonnie
Burchard's "Women of Influence" a grown daughter becomes the
go-between for two sisters--her dying mother and her dying aunt: "I
realize I have not been asked to bring my mother's forgiveness here. Or have I?
Is my mother counting on me to pass it on or to live with it? I don't want her
compromised" (https://www.amazon.ca/Mothers-Daughters-ALBERTO-MANGUEL/dp/1551921278/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1462302466&sr=1-1&keywords=mothers+and+daughters+alberto+manguel).
Also in
honour of the day, I thought I’d share an article from The Guardian. It features
writers’ reflections on photographs of their mothers before they were
born. Some of the writers included are
Jeanette Winterson, Julian Barnes, and Penelope Lively: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/mar/05/writers-mothers-photographs-carol-ann-duffy?CMP=twt_books_b-gdnbooks.
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