mother, mother

 Remember the name “Koren Zailckas,” cuz that’s what I did.  I read Smashed, her first book, and I was mesmerized. I also read Fury her second book.   Forget that as far as age, if I were a tree, I’d have a lot of rings around me.  Koren Zailckas is a freshyoung writer, with unique turns of phrase, and in Smashed she quotes Mary Karr and others, with whom I have kindred feelings for and read everything by them.

For some reason, I thought I’d read Mother, Mother, but must have been my wish list looming largely.  Mother, Mother is a story of evil and the face of banality.  That’s the only thing I remember of Hannah Arendt – evil is banal, and she was speaking of the Holocaust.

Mother, Mother is a miniature holocaust about to happen, sneaks up upon the reader, this reading having been taken immediately the second paragraph, “On this particular Saturday, mother was both a n oun and a verb.  An operative verb for the whole novel could be fraught, but the freshness of her images, and comic views sneak in.  I was engrossed.  Her language is tight, and post-traumatic syndrome formed in clouds within my mind, as I gripped page after page, not wanting to put this book down.

Slowly and skillfully diabolic intent emerges and fuses with Violet’s coming awareness of her mother’s pernicious hatred.  The plot is gripping, and I couldn’t put the book down.  It’s about a mother’s hatred and narcissism, her past abuse and her catapulting  hatred in passive aggressive ways into her children.  What a horror story.

Zailckas splits the story between her version of the mother, and of Will, her younger brother’s version.   They have such alternative views about the same mother.  This was a fabulous read, and I hope many people become fans of Koren Zailckas.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.  I am like an untrained dalmation when I like something, a cause, a piece of Kabob, but particularly books and writing styles.  I teach creative writing, and feel intensely privileged to have a blog and read glorious writers like Koren Zailckas

 

Advertisement

A Jabberwock in Aspic

A friend’s take on Beware the Jabberwock…. delightful

china dolls by lisa see

China Dolls by Lisa See
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am a fan of Lisa See, and I read a lot about China, particularly in narrative form. She is a story teller and keeps the reader close to the page, hesitant to put her books down. I revered her Mom also, Carolyn See – what a family of writers.

I loved the detail, the history of the time, the breaking away from tradition and the courage of the three women. Highly recommend this book!