|
|
||||||
|
||||||
Book Review Title MotherKind Fiction-Net Rating Buy It - Buy This Book Cover Story Jayne
Anne
Phillips'
brilliant new novel explores the spiritual
education at the heart of that most
fundamental transition - the child
becoming the caretaker of the parent. In
MotherKind,
Kate - whose care for her terminally ill
mother coincides with the birth of her
first child in the early months of a young
marriage - must, in a single year, come to
terms with radiant beginnings and profound
loss. Phillips
tells Kate's story in a delicately layered
narrative in which the daily details of
life resonate with import and
meaning. We enter
the world of Kate's marriage, of babies
and stepchildren, neighbours and friends.
We watch as the tumult of Kate's everyday
world is enveloped by the gradual
vanishing of her mother. And as the woman
who has been her best friend and mentor
disappears, we see Kate deal with
timeless, perhaps unanswerable, questions
of love and death. It is
the triumph of MotherKind that Kate's
complex experience of being - and losing -
a mother is so luminously
portrayed. We Say I have
been waiting a long time for a book that
would equal Jayne Anne Phillips' debut
novel, Machine
Dreams
(first published in 1984). Unfortunately,
MotherKind is not the one. MotherKind
does not have the same kind of scope or
reach that Jayne Anne Phillips' first book
had and nor does it have quite the same
strength of characters. However,
MotherKind is still wonderful and
ambitious in its own way and I feel
slightly cruel to begin on a negative
point. Once I did manage to get over my
disappointment that it wasn't going to be
another Machine Dreams, I began to see
more and more clearly just how good it
actually is. Jayne
Anne Phillips is a true craftswoman when
it comes to her writing. Words are truly
her tools, which she uses skillfully to
create something amazing. There is the
sense that each word and every phrase is
laboured over and nurtured carefully
(which is exactly how it should be for any
writer worth their advance!). This can
make it quite tough going at times. But
then, this book is not one for those that
enjoy cosy, friendly stories and the odd
airport paperback on the beach - this is
the hard stuff. Both the subject matter
and the style are uncompromisingly heavy
and sad. That said, I am not suggesting
that it is pretentious - it's not. It is
about real life (which is frequently
mundane) and real people. Tthe characters
are totally convincing. MotherKind
is not the easiest book to read but for
anyone who aspires to write, it is a fine
example of skilled writing. As a reader,
it is a story that proves to be very
moving and full of truth. Review by: Rachel Taylor Buy It - Buy This Book |
|
|
|
Copyright © 1999-2025 Fiction-Net Book Reviews