Now that the April print edition of BookPage is available online and in bookstores and libraries, I want to highlight one of our features: Karen Holt’s interview with Anne Lamott about Imperfect Birds, a poignant family story about the harrowing challenges of raising a teenager—an experience Lamott knows well as the mother of a 20-year-old.
The teen in the novel is the volatile 17-year-old Rosie: “She’s affectionate one minute, then furious, then scornful, forcing her mother onto a harrowing emotional rollercoaster Lamott thinks many parents will recognize,” writes Holt. Rosie’s mother, Elizabeth, battles her own demons, and the novel alternates between each character’s point of view.
To learn more about some of the personal experiences that inspired this story, read Lamott’s interview in BookPage. Also, leave a message in the comments section to enter to win a copy of Imperfect Birds. We’re giving away four copies, so enter now—your chances are good!
What’s a favorite or memorable mother-daughter pair from literature? The Deadline is Friday, April 9 at 10 a.m.
When I think of a mother-daughter pair from literature, my mind immediately goes to “Amy and Isabelle” by Elizabeth Strout. The author gave both sides of the relationship such clarity.
I recently read Traveling with Pomegranates, which my mom gave me for my birthday, and so enjoyed both the mother and daughter of the story (author Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter Ann Kidd Taylor) that it took me months to read, just because I had to savor each bit.
I’ve been thinking about Alice Sebold’s work lately, so my first response to this question is the mother-daughter in THE ALMOST MOON. Not my favorite pair, but one that still haunts.
I loved the mother-daughter duo in White Oleander.
Wow, what mother-daughter relationship comes to mind…I think that would be Winnie and Pearl in Amy Tan’s Kitchen God’s Wife!
Thanks for the giveaway.
I just finished Fireworks over Toccoa and some of my favorite moments were between the mother and daughter – complete opposites yet so much alike.
Life on the Refrigerator Door is an emotional and beautiful story about a mother/daughter relationship.
The first thing that came to mind for me was Little Women – Marmee and Jo (and Meg, Beth and Amy).
I really enjoyed the relationship that Sunny had with her mother in The Laws of Harmony by Judi Hendricks. Sunny grew up in a commune and it was a different kind of life. Their relationship was far from perfect, but the interactions between the two were interesting to read.
The first mother-daughter pair that came to mind for me was from Dreaming Water by Gail Tsukiyama. The adult daughter has Werner’s Syndrome, making her age at twice the normal rate; even though she’s only in her 30s, the daughter looks — and physically is — older than the mother who has been caring for her.
This was a wonderful novel, and a good book club discussion book also.
Letters to my Daughters.
Gotta love both mother/daughter relationships in Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels. Even though they drive each other nuts (Stephanie and her mom and her mom’s mom, you can tell they love each other.
reading this would be an interesting learning experience to me….
My current favorite mother/daughter relationship is between the Spellmans – Izzy and her mother. They are always at odds but still have each other’s back.
Sounds like a good read…please enter me. Thanks!!!
The crazed relationship between the mother and daughter in “Grey Gardens” is a memorable one!
Izzy Spellman and her mother from ‘The Spellman files’, etc. If only I was so clever and minipulative (in a loving way, or course).
As I was thinking about my answer it’s odd to say I haven’t read many books with a strong Mother/Daughter realationship except Letters to my Daughters. I am very interested in Imperfect Birds because i have a 17 and 14 year old daughters and feel i stay on a rollercoaster lately, LoL
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From “Pride and Prejudice,”Mrs. Bennet and Lizzie, Jane, Mary, Kitty and Lydia Bennet. The girls endure her and yet love her as a mother.
And the “girls” are a trial to Mrs. Bennet in many different ways.
Well of course after your last contest I immediately thought of ‘Little Women’ by Louisa May Alcott because even though the story is about the March sisters, the relationship with their mother is an important part of the story.
For me,a memorable mother/daughter combination (notice I did not say happy) was Irene America and her daughter Riel in Louise Erdrich’s “Shadow Tag”
I love, love the 3 generations of women–mother, daughter, and granddaughter in CHARMS FOR THE EASY LIFE by Kaye Gibbons. Smart, literate, eccentric, completely unforgettable.
I recently read “The Three Weissmanns from Wesport” – a lovely story of two girls and their mother suffering together through some troubelsome times. However, not quite literature, but what’s more famous than the allegedly “mother dearest” relationship between Joan Crawford and her adopted daughter, Christina????
My granddaughter, aged 14,
, is already going though swings of emotion that I don’t recall from raising my daughters. This sounds like a good read for both myself and then to pass onto my daughter(s), and then my teenage, beloved, granddaughter. Love her spirit and enthusiasm for life.
The literary mother-daughter relationship that has made the strongest impression on me through the years is that of Mrs. Bennet and her youngest daughter, Lydia, in Pride and Prejudice. Lydia reminds Mrs. B. of herself in her younger years. Consequently the mother actually encourages her high-spirited, flirtatious daughter in her questionable behavior even when her older, wiser daughters counsel restraint. What a recipe for impending disaster! Mrs. Bennet, you drive me crazy!
Has to be Mrs. March and Jo, Meg, Beth and Amy.
The mother and daughter from Life On the Refrigerator Door really tugged at your heartstrings.
Celestine Vaite wrote a charming trilogy, beginning with Breadfruit, about Materena Mahi and her daughter Lealani and their life and family in Tahiti. Warm and funny – a perfect beach read!
sounds like a good read.
I know someone else already said it, but it was also the first memorable mother/daughter pair that came to mind for me: Amy & Isabelle from the novel of the same name by Elizabeth Strout.