Mothers and Daughters

I was struck, this week by how little 1692 Andover Massachusetts resembles 1964 Tupelo Mississippi.  Neither is much like 1993 Nova Scotia or 2014 Northern Ontario.  Yet, each is inhabited by mothers and daughters growing up and apart.


I find it interesting that both of these books are written from the perspective of a grown up daughter with children of her own about a mother, now gone.  Each daughter remembers the relationship she had with her mother as she approached adolescence.  The memories are intertwined with bits of betrayal and ambivalence and rebellion and independence and love.  These books make me want to shake every woman and girl I know including myself, and tell them that "Finding your own way is not a rejection of those who've gone before."  But I probably won't.

Mary turns twelve this year.