Customer Reviews

Her Face in the Mirror: Jewish Women on Mothers and Duaghters

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What can I say about the incredible, vivid, poetic and right-on pieces in this book!! These Jewish mothers and their families seem so real, captured in literature for posterity. We cry, smile, get angry, yearn or run away fast. Whatever your reaction, you will remember these stories for a long time. My favorites were:

1. Only a Phase by Leslea Newman - A mother discovers that her daughter is a lesbian and can't accept it. In their geographic and emotional distance, we are given the literary gift of seeing how much alike they are and much they have in common.

2 Tropical Aunts by Enid Shomer - This story deals with the Jewish and WASP sides of a family along with the traditional and the eccentric. An eccentric aunt studies eastern religion and tells a writer's mother that her dead daughter is not really dead but will come back as something else. The family never speaks to her again.

3. The Different Landscape by Margaret Klee - A mother grapples with the grief and loss of her daughter after she comes out as a lesbian. The mother searches for the daughter she once knew and loved.

4. Looking for Tamerlane by Jodi Daynard - An estranged mother and daughter use the theme of searching for a rare book by Edgar Allen Poe as a reason to bring them together in a common activity. Otherwise, they are very aware of how difficult it is for them to tap into their love.

5. Mother I Hardly Knew You by Letty Cottin Pogrebin - This is a lovely insightful memoir of the author's mother who died when the author was 16 years old. How her mother influenced Ms. Pogrebin and how her legacy of leaving gave the author the strength to make choices that have been important to her is part of the anguish here. For in her dying, se gave Ms. Pogrebin the life she now has. While she was alive she gave Ms. Pogrebin the love and unconditional faith that only a mother can give.

6. A Leak in the Heart by Faye Moskowitz - This is a memoir of her mother's dying of breast cancer.
"I still grieve the words unsaid. Something terrble happens
when we stop the mouths of the dying before they are dead.
A silence grows up between us then, profounder than the
grave. If we force the dying to go speechless, the stone
dropped into the well will fall forever before the answering
splash is heard."

These are only a few of the pieces in this book. If any of these appeal to you, I hope you buy this book. It is a real gem.

I'm surprised I'm the first to review this one as I found it an absolute delight, containing the the viewpoints of 56 Jewish mothers and daughters on such diverse subjects as birth, anger, love, belonging, surviving, talking back, leaving home, when a mother dies, etc. Some of the writers were old favorites of mine (Maxine Kumin, Grace Paley) and others were new discoveries ( Robin Becker, Enid Shomer). A very rich collection of works, from poetry to short stories to memoirs.