Think your mother was harsh? These books will convince you that she deserves a Mother of the Year Award.
By Tina Jordan and Susan Ellingwood
It’s
Mother’s Day. You’ve sent the flowers, the card and even the box of
chocolates. You’ve also just paid another therapist’s bill. But c’mon
she wasn’t that bad a mother. If you want to see bad, take a look at
these eight books, rife with screamers, abusers and not-so-benign
neglecters. Of course, they are all creatures of fiction, but you get
the point.
Margaret White
‘Carrie,’ by Stephen King
“Her mother is a horror: a religious fanatic eager to beat the goodness of Christ into sinners with a powerful right hand.”
Mrs. Lisbon
‘The Virgin Suicides,’ by Jeffrey Eugenides
The
five Lisbon daughters live “under the thumb of their domineering
mother,” a woman “who never allows them to date, and who insists they
wear baggy, ridiculous clothes. Though their ineffectual father seems
vaguely sympathetic to their plight, he never stands up to their
tyrannical mother.” When one of them breaks curfew, “the girls are
permanently grounded. They are pulled out of school and locked in the
house.”
Helen
‘Housekeeping,’ by Marilynne Robinson
Ruth and Lucille, raised by a succession of indifferent relatives, “were
quite small when their mother left them, with a box of graham crackers,
on the porch in Fingerbone. ‘At last,’ Ruth says, ‘we slid from her lap
like one of those magazines full of responsible opinion about
discipline and balanced meals.’”
Mary
‘Push,’ by Sapphire
“At
the age of 16, Claireece, or ‘Precious’ as she calls herself, has
already had two children by the man she knows as her father. Her mother
has not only allowed these rapes to occur, but also beats Precious for
stealing her man. She, too, sexually abuses Precious, and treats her as a
maidservant around the house.”
Ingrid
‘White Oleander,’ by Janet Fitch
Astrid’s
mother is in prison — she’s murdered her boyfriend — but Astrid “will
continually measure herself against the standards of her mother’s beauty
and fearlessness (and find herself lacking) while at the same time
learning to hate her mother for her selfishness, her cruelty and her
ability to manipulate and charm.”
Adele August
‘Anywhere but Here,’ by Mona Simpson
“‘We
fought’ are the first words of Simpson’s challenging first novel about a
mother-daughter road-trip. “‘Fought’ is an understated reference for
the war of words, wills and fists that rages between them from the first
to last page.”
Janice Angstrom
‘Rabbit, Run,’ by John Updike
“Rabbit”
Angstrom’s wife, Janice — often found “highball in hand, glued to the
television set” — drunkenly allows their infant daughter to drown in the
tub.
Sophie Portnoy
‘Portnoy’s Complaint,’ by Philip Roth
“His
mother, Sophie, cleans up after the maid, worries endlessly about what
goes into Alex and what comes out of him, and exists to protect him from
gentiles and manhood.”
© 2018 The New York Times Company.
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