by Mary Gordon
First published 2007
Mary Gordon examines the life of her mother Anna Gagliano Gordon, who died in 2002 at ninety-four. Anna contracted polio at three, lived through immigration, the Great Depression, and two world wars, and battled alcoholism and dementia. When Gordon's father died during her childhood, Anna became a single mother in mid-century Catholic working-class America. She held steady employment, dressed well, and raised her daughter independently. Anna possessed a sharp, sometimes cutting wit and found joy in simple pleasures, singing with a lovely voice despite never sharing Mary's artistic interests. Gordon portrays Anna in multiple dimensions: as sister, worker, believer, and mother. The memoir follows Anna's courage in transcending the limitations of her origins. In Anna's final years, Gordon cared for her aging mother while working to preserve memories of the vibrant woman who launched her into her own life. Gordon applies her skills with detail and character to create an intimate portrait of maternal complexity.
Genres: family-life, 20th-century, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, found-family, slice-of-life
Setting: America, Catholic, Great Depression, Mid-Century
Period: Childhood, Final Years, World War I, World War II
272 pages · Hardcover · Pantheon
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse, mental-illness