Her Mother's Daughter [Hardcover]

Marilyn French (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1990

A rich and compelling story about four generations of magnificent women, celebrating the love, pride, sacrifice, devotion, and unheralded triumph of all women's lives.


From the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Not as shrill as The Women's Room but with a fund of trenchant observations about women's roles, French's hefty new novel, which appears on the 10th anniversary of her fiction debut, is a powerful if flawed work. The writing is rich in detail and insight but marred by an excess of feminist zeal that paints all men as autocratic monsters who are unable to love their children. French limns the lives of four generations of women in a Polish-American family. The narrator, born Anastasia Dabrowski, has by dint of a hard-won career as an intrepid photographer, achieved an independent identity as Stacey Stevens. Nearing 50, twice divorced, she is severely depressed, and she looks back at the lives of her mother and grandmother, and forward to the lives of her two daughters, to try to understand the cause. Stacey finds that in each generation women make bitter sacrifices for the sake of their offspring, while the children, especially the daughters, bitterly resent what they see as their mothers' guilt-producing martyrdom; they, in turn, seem destined to repeat their mothers' lives. Men are the villains here: tyrannical fathers who terrorize or desert their progeny. Eternally victimized in this male-dominated culture, women are deprived of comfort, love, security and peace of mind. French's descriptions of the bone-wearying, endless domestic drudgery of poverty-stricken women are among the most authentic work she has ever done; the travail of the weekly laundry routine is rendered in details no reader will forget. The plight of women who hold down jobs at the same time they are raising families is also depicted with rare accuracy. Writing of the "anger and despair and frustration and weariness" of motherhood, French nevertheless comes to the conclusion that raising and nurturing children are woman's only true and emotionally satisfying role. Strong elements of autobiography seem to be present here (Stacey's mother's name is Isabelle; so is the author's mother, to whom the book is dedicated); it seems that no memory or detail has been omitted. On the one hand, this is a moving evocation of the fears and miseries of childhood and the frustrations of wife- and motherhood; on the other, the sheer mass of intensely recalled minutiae is slow moving rather than dramatic. French's contrasts are too intense; her outrage at men's power and women's double bind of servitude and martyrdom is often strident and vituperative. But the basic truths in this novel, and French's determined telling of them, will strike some resonant chords. Literary Guild main selection; major ad/promo.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Ten years after The Women's Room , French gives us another captivating and lengthy novel on women's lives. Here, Anastasia narrates her life experiences by blending them with those of her grandmother, mother, and daughter. Each woman has been determined not to make the sacrifices her mother made, instead seeking joy, freedom, and independence. And in doing so, each has become like her motheremotionally drained, alienated from her children, and alone. By probing the past and living the present, Anastasia comes to understand the silent bond between mothers and daughters. Highly recommended. Jeris Cassell, Rutgers Univ. Libs., New Brunswick, N.J.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Random House Value Publishing (October 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517055449
• ISBN-13: 978-0517055441
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,814,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining, insightful read, January 31, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Her Mother's Daughter (Mass Market Paperback)

I am reading Her Mother's Daughter - its coming to an end, and I know I will miss these characters and their wonderful insights into the lives of women. I am of the younger generation, and I suppose the rules are not as rigid for me , but the roles women are expected to play do not change. As the generations go by, the guilt becomes less ( I hope), but will it ever go away? I spite of having so many depressed women in it- it is suprprsingly not a depressing book, rather, it is uplifting, as introspective books can sometimes be. I would disagree with the other reviewers who have said that the author seems to hate men- it is not so. She does not hate men, only the world-order that favors men... when she says "... it was not a fit life for a man, .. why was it considered a fit life for a woman.."-she brings out the question that every woman has instinctively wanted to ask.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic discovery, January 26, 2000

By 

Turnbull Jacqueline (Antwerp, Belgium, Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Her Mother's Daughter (Mass Market Paperback)

A new door has opened finding this author quite by accident in a second hand book store. Since reading Her Mother's daughter I can't read enough books written by this author. As a woman of 50 I feel -for the first time in my life- that there are other women like me, torn between the old and new way of life. Working and bringing up children. Husbands raised by their parents not understanding that we were living two lives at the same time and trying to be perfect and please everyone. The men were not to be blamed, they didn't know any better than we did, it took me 25 years to gently make my husband understand my point of view. I hope I made a better job bringing up my two sons to this new way of life - the 50/50 way. Marilyn French doesn't hate men I think as is said in a previous review, she definitely points out the tender, forever guilty feeling of women our age. I cannot speak for the younger women. It's compusilve reading, nothing to do with being a feminist, but to understand how women feel and experience life. Fantastic reading, the best ever....and I've read more books than I can remember. I'm certainly advertising this author among my friends and they are just as impressed as I am. Thank you Ms. French.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exploring the power of detail, March 4, 2001

By 

Sandra Zickefoose (Katonah, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Her Mother's Daughter: A Novel (Hardcover)

Marilyn French has written a number of good books--each exploring things that are in fact common, every day aspects of life--and thus oft times invisible and not recognized as important. Becasue she is also a good writer and a talented story teller--she is able to keep us reading, all the while making us think about how important these 'small' parts of life really are. In this book she creates characters who are glued together by biology and family culture and yet who are entirely unique individuals who love and struggle with each other as they create their own and each others lives. You come away from it with a sence of the importance of the details of our own lives and the impact of all those 'small' things in our lives on the lives of others. Thus this book can entertain you and leave you with things to think about far into the future--an accomplishment for any novel.