"What do you know when you're young? At sixteen you think you're immortal. You're sure your first love will last till eternity. You assume the joy of sex, just like a thing of beauty, will be a joy forever. You never imagine that money and jobs and mothers and mothers-in-law and kids and current events and the tricky hot-water heater and too many frozen chicken potpies and a bad cold and a thoughtless word could even penetrate the thick protective shell of your perfect love. What did I know when I married Rex? I was a child."
- Of Men and Their Mothers, page 147
If you have a testy mother-in-law (or "MIL" as our protagonist, Maisie, calls hers), you might find something to relate to in Mameve Medwed's "Of Men and Their Mothers." If you read "chicklit" and need some light reading for the beach, then "Mothers" is for you.
Maisie Grey is a 30-something divorced woman who more-or-less has it all together; she just doesn't know it. Her hoity-toity MIL continues to inject insult and injury into Maisie's life, long after the divorce, mainly through their one mutual concern, Maisie's son Tommy. Antics and drama ensue when they are called upon to join forces, but the storm is really Maisie's to weather.
Medwed's style is light, unpretentious and amusing, if sometimes a bit cliché, although this comes across as authentic for our protagonist, who also narrates the story. In fact, Maisie seems to be talking to the reader as if she were your good friend who lives down the street - or the sister you phone on Saturday mornings while you're drinking coffee. She is a warm, likeable character whose maternal endurance is tested in lively (and often familiar) ways. Appearances are made by various mothers-in-law, sewing a seamless theme into what could have been merely "a year in the life of..." story. There is definitely (at least) one admirable MIL in the bunch, but you will have to decide which one(s) for yourself..
Happy reading!
Of Men and Their Mothers by Mameve Medwed
ISBN: 9780060831219
Publisher: HarperCollins/May 2008
Hardover, 304 pages, General Fiction
Buy it at Amazon, Powells, or an Independent Bookstore Near You
Mameve Medwed is currently working on her sixth novel. Visit her website at www.mamevemedwed.com and listen to her read and discuss Of Men and Their Mothers on Utah Public Radio. Of Men and Their Mothers is a BookSense Notable Book for May 2008. You can read an excerpt online here at HarperCollins.
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Comments: 24
Gretchen - I won't argue!
(thanks)
As a man who was most close to his mother, I suppose this book might make my sweet Donna Blue-Eyes glad that my mother passed before hitching up with me. I can't remember ever dating one woman who seemed good enough for me in my mother's eyes. I really kind of love my mother for that; even though it was a major pain in the patoot.
Sounds like a good book.