With poignancy and humor, Deborah Batterman reminds us in these brief, linked essays that every mother is a daughter, too. The insights she brings to simple acts – looking at old photographs, recalling the smells and tastes of her mother’s cooking, making her daughter’s bed or shopping with her – are as beautifully rendered as they are profound.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Deborah Batterman knows what it is to be a mother. Her poignant collection of essays, "Because my name is mother" reveal the intricate and deeply complex relationships between mothers and daughters. Ms Batterman's adept use of poetic language and vivid imagery allows the reader to savor each phrase, like nursing a warm cup of tea on a cold, rainy day.
In "Gefilte Fish" Ms Batterman writes movingly of her attempt to carry on the Passover traditions of her mother who is dying in the hospital, "Keeping alive her ritual, we hoped, would sustain her. And us."
In "Making my Daughter's Bed" Ms Batterman describes the emotional bond a mother has with her adult daughter, and how she still craves to be needed, even though her daughter lives 3000 miles away, "My home does not need a dog as much as it needs a daughter."
Throughout her stories, Deborah Batterman's stirring descriptions capture the pure essence of the unconditional love that mothers and daughters share. Her honesty and humor are woven intricately through her words, making this lovely collection difficult to put down. I highly recommend it.
In "Gefilte Fish" Ms Batterman writes movingly of her attempt to carry on the Passover traditions of her mother who is dying in the hospital, "Keeping alive her ritual, we hoped, would sustain her. And us."
In "Making my Daughter's Bed" Ms Batterman describes the emotional bond a mother has with her adult daughter, and how she still craves to be needed, even though her daughter lives 3000 miles away, "My home does not need a dog as much as it needs a daughter."
Throughout her stories, Deborah Batterman's stirring descriptions capture the pure essence of the unconditional love that mothers and daughters share. Her honesty and humor are woven intricately through her words, making this lovely collection difficult to put down. I highly recommend it.
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Deborah Batterman paints exquisite vignettes that reveal the often complex and rich relationship between mothers and daughters. Her use of language reads like poetry swirling through the air on a warm summer day. I became a fan of Deborah Batterman's after reading SHOES HAIR NAILS. This lovely collection of poignant essays, reinforces why I will always be a fan of her sublime writing.
By DAVE PORT
Format:Kindle Edition
Mothers. We love them and sometimes hate them. We emulate them, yet often want to get away from them. In Batterman's new collection of linked essays, she delves into the deeply complex kinship of mothers and daughters. With the same wisdom, subtle humor and poetic writing she exhibited in her last collection SHOES HAIR NAILS, she holds a mirror up to mothers and daughters today, so we see them from differing points of view. And, thus, we see ourselves.
In one essay she attempts to carry on Passover traditions of her dying mother, as if they will keep her alive. In another, she describes the mother's longing for a daughter living 3000 miles away, the mother dwelling on how a pet dog cannot replace a daughter. These are poignant stories capturing the blessing/curse of mother/daughter love. The longings, and the misunderstandings. While reading them I thought how seldom we realize the same patterns will be repeated with our OWN daughters.
A lovely collection, beautifully written, in a silent homage to mothers. The scene where a daughter ends her visit, and the mother lovingly makes her bed, left this reader deeply moved. Savour this collection, buy copies for your friends, your mothers, your daughters. Then buy Batterman's wonderful first collection, SHOES HAIR NAILS.
Kiana Davenport, THE SPY LOVER (August)
In one essay she attempts to carry on Passover traditions of her dying mother, as if they will keep her alive. In another, she describes the mother's longing for a daughter living 3000 miles away, the mother dwelling on how a pet dog cannot replace a daughter. These are poignant stories capturing the blessing/curse of mother/daughter love. The longings, and the misunderstandings. While reading them I thought how seldom we realize the same patterns will be repeated with our OWN daughters.
A lovely collection, beautifully written, in a silent homage to mothers. The scene where a daughter ends her visit, and the mother lovingly makes her bed, left this reader deeply moved. Savour this collection, buy copies for your friends, your mothers, your daughters. Then buy Batterman's wonderful first collection, SHOES HAIR NAILS.
Kiana Davenport, THE SPY LOVER (August)
By D. Previte
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Deborah Batterman is a woman who knows the intricacies of writing well. She is a writer who can take apart a piece of story like boning a fish, bit by tiny bit, and come out with a delicacy. I love her body of work. It's a delight to read, and I wonder when some major publisher is going to discover her and put her all over the book shelves in every major city across the country. For now, any of us can read her work by finding her on Barnes & Noble for a song. Lucky for us!
In "Because My Name Is Mother," Deborah has highlighted the dark and the light sides of motherhood. It's a retrospective story making of the push-pull we all probably feel about our own mothers; i.e., that sense of loving them, and at the same time feeling a sort of jealousy or resentment toward them. And, if not a resentment, an awe of the mystique of them on some level. The power of motherhood is addressed in Deborah's short stories, as is the personal weaknesses of women who are mothers. And all this is done with such brilliance and poignancy, we can't help being touched with memory and the madness, and the awareness of our own roles as mothers.
I'm a huge fan of Batterman's work. I have to stop by her blog fairly often just to get my dosage of her writing and wisdom. She's an amazing artist. She's also one of those who actually sees and interprets the world around her on a regular basis. That's a gift, which makes her a gifted writer.
I loved the second story in this collection, for instance, of her showing her grown daughter by example that it's good to enjoy the moment, to take time to distance oneself from busy-ness when having a moment's pleasure and "relaxation" in a manicure and pedicure salon...putting away cell phones, magazines, etc., to enjoy the moment.... Read more ›
In "Because My Name Is Mother," Deborah has highlighted the dark and the light sides of motherhood. It's a retrospective story making of the push-pull we all probably feel about our own mothers; i.e., that sense of loving them, and at the same time feeling a sort of jealousy or resentment toward them. And, if not a resentment, an awe of the mystique of them on some level. The power of motherhood is addressed in Deborah's short stories, as is the personal weaknesses of women who are mothers. And all this is done with such brilliance and poignancy, we can't help being touched with memory and the madness, and the awareness of our own roles as mothers.
I'm a huge fan of Batterman's work. I have to stop by her blog fairly often just to get my dosage of her writing and wisdom. She's an amazing artist. She's also one of those who actually sees and interprets the world around her on a regular basis. That's a gift, which makes her a gifted writer.
I loved the second story in this collection, for instance, of her showing her grown daughter by example that it's good to enjoy the moment, to take time to distance oneself from busy-ness when having a moment's pleasure and "relaxation" in a manicure and pedicure salon...putting away cell phones, magazines, etc., to enjoy the moment.... Read more ›
By Jane Gross
Format:Kindle Edition
These linked essays are rich in detail, heartfelt without being mawkish and read like silk. Deborah's love of language -- its sound, its touch -- is second only to her love for her mother & daughter. And while you're at it, go back and read her short story collection, "Shoes Hair Nails.'' (Note the absence of commas; only a writer of enormous gifts would make such a small but elegant choice.)
By Cheryl Snell
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
Intimate and inventive, the linked essays in Deborah Batterman's Because My Name is Mother are rich with telling details. Objects and everyday acts resonate until we can see ourselves in the vivid moments the author creates. There's the photograph of the author's parents, "young and happy and vibrant, maybe even in love." There's the author's attempt to keep her dying mother's traditions alive, but in her own way. The end of a grown daughter's visit is touchingly rendered by her mother's homely act of making her bed.
Deborah Batterman fills the senses with her poignant, funny observations of family and modern life, drawing the reader in, revealing layers of existence with the nuanced phrase, the apt symbol. Whether photographs or fabulous shoes, the refrains make this a collection to savor. "There are some things you just never want to come to an end" the author says in "Sweet Indulgences." For me, reading Because My Name is Mother is one of them.
Shoes Hair Nails
Deborah Batterman fills the senses with her poignant, funny observations of family and modern life, drawing the reader in, revealing layers of existence with the nuanced phrase, the apt symbol. Whether photographs or fabulous shoes, the refrains make this a collection to savor. "There are some things you just never want to come to an end" the author says in "Sweet Indulgences." For me, reading Because My Name is Mother is one of them.
Shoes Hair Nails
More About the Author
A native New Yorker, Deborah Batterman has worked over the years as a writer, editor, and teaching artist. A story from her debut collection was nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and she took 3rd place in the Women's National Book Association 2012 Short Fiction Contest. Her stories have appeared in anthologies as well as various print and online journals, and she recently completed a novel.
Website/blog: http://www.deborahbatterman.com.
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/deborah.batterman
Website/blog: http://www.deborahbatterman.com.
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/deborah.batterman
