Customer Reviews

Of Men and Their Mothers

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After seeing several excellent reviews I had high expectations of this book. It's a "bit instant soup" for my likes... main character struggles finally finds love and all is perfect in the end. Not enough substance for me to find interesting.

Amid all the horrors and stresses of contemporary life, how wonderful to find a writer whose grasp of those tensions is pointed and profound, but who is able to render up her perceptions in such a benign and funny way. I have read all five of Mameve Medwed's novels, and each one is a skillfully composed comic delight. Of Men and Their Mothers is full of vivid, even Dickensian characters, and its observations about life in Cambridge, Somerville, and present-day America are richly rewarding. Simultaneously amusing and illuminating, the novel will whet your appetite for Medwed's earlier four books. Let's hope there is soon a sixth novel as well.

It always makes me nervous to read a new novel by a writer whose books I already know and like. What if the new one isn't as good? But it's so wonderful when the book IS as good as the others -- and this one is. It's about a woman named Maisie Pollock and her relationships with a piggish overbearing (but believable) ex-mother-in-law, her son's rude waifish girlfriend, a young mother embroiled in a custody battle with HER horrible mother-in-law, and a new man who may or may not be overly tied to his dead mother's apron strings. The writing is somehow both cozy and sharp. It's very funny -- the kind of comedy that looks easy but must take incredible skill to write, and that makes you wince and laugh at the same time. It's about big things -- anxiety, resentment, fear, romantic attraction -- and the nutty small ways we try to hide our feelings, or channel them into socially "correct" behavior. The biggest thing of all is motherhood, and the perennial question about when do you speak up and when do you keep your mouth shut. As with all of her earlier books, reading this gave me a huge amount of pleasure and a lot to think about.

After reading Medwed's "End of an Error," I had high hopes for this book. However, "Of Men and Their Mothers" was much more lightweight and formulaic than EoaE.

OMaTM wasn't a bad read. But in the words of Gertrude Stein, there just wasn't much "there" there. Mother/son relationships would seem to provide grist for more than superficial exploration. Oh and I was left wondering why Medwed seemingly is fixated on overbearing grandmothers and chickens (they're prominently featured in both books).

Mameve Medwed's article about growing her life up poor in a family that gives itself airs and pretends to be old-rich captured my attention in last week's New York Times titled "Candelabra and Chipped Paint" (August 4, 2011). I liked her acerbic style and her wit. Her comedic voice is astute.

I found Of Men and Their Mothers full of telling observations along the lines of the title, told with a humorous eye, and good character development. It's a little bit "happily ever after" in the way she handles the wrap up, but now and then that has a charm and warmth of its own. I recommend it as a satisfying read when you have had enough of sturm and drang, despair and unhappy endings.

Her former boyfriend Jack of Somerville Legal Services asks Maisie Grey for a few favors that will help his pro bono client Darlene Lattanzio; whose mother-in-law is suing her for custody of her grandson baby Anthony. Having once had the mother-in-law from hell, Mrs. (that is always and forever) Mrs. Pollock, whom she still wars with over the raising of her sixteen years old son Tommy, Maisie agrees. She hires Darlene at her Boston-based organizing firm, Factotum and even hides the young mother's breast milk in her freezer.

Maisie is also unhappy with Tommy's choice of a girlfriend, September Silva, who was kicked out of her home and now lives with them. At a hospital she runs into former momma's boy Gabe who finally escaped his mom's domination when she died. Maisie and Gabe start dating though she fears he is only looking for a substitute mom and she has two teens living with her. In fact she reads the riot act to Stephanie starting with attending school. September is ecstatic in having a "mom" giving her direction and agrees.

This is an amusing look at the triangle relationships between mothers, their sons and their daughters-in-law. The story line is filled with humor starting with frozen breast milk next to frozen pot pies, but also fails to dig deep into why the ties between mom and son sometimes overwhelms the son's bond with his wife; thus a fun tale could have been a profound contemporary relationship drama, but is not. Although supermom Maisie saves the day for seemingly everyone (except for granny Lattanzio) too easily, fans who enjoy a lighthearted funny romp will want to read OF MEN AND THEIR MOTHERS.

Harriet Klausner

I loved Medwed's earlier novels, especially Mail and How Elizabeth Barrett Browning Saved My Life.

Maisie Grey is a classic Medwed heroine--quirky, funny, endearing and wise. Her company, Factotum, which organizes the lives of various scattered Harvard professors and Cambridge eccentrics is straight out of a screwball comedy. So is her ex in-laws family business, Pollock Pot Pies, with specialty pies that include "All-white Deluxe, Wings a la King, Drumstick Bangers and Mash."

At the heart of this book is the complex relationship between mothers and sons. After years of suffering insults from her hyper-critical mother-in-law, Maisie deals with her son's Goth girlfriend and other motherless chicks with aplomb and loving kindness. As the daughter-in-law to an Ina Pollock clone and the mother of teenage sons, I found "Of Men and Their Mothers" true and deeply touching. Mameve Medwed at her best.

Thank goodness for Mameve Medwed. With "Of Men and Their Mothers," she has given us another smart, witty, perceptive and compulsively readable novel. Margaret Atwood once said that she could identify a story by Alice Munro if it were in braille -- and she doesn't read braille. The same can be said about Mameve Medwed's increasingly impressive body of work. Her ability to deal with the important business of life (relationships, loss, love, and starting anew) in a comedic way is unmatched. I put down "Of Men and Their Mothers" between chapters (very briefly) and ran my fingers across the binding in both admiration and gratitude. This book stays with you. Mameve Medwed's great gift in "Of Men and Their Mothers" is to sweep the reader along on a comedic high, all the while exploring the complexities of the way we live with each other. Bravo!

Of Men and Their Mothers is another first-rate novel from Medwed. Clever and funny, the novel is chock full of endearing characters and tackles a fundamental aspect of the human condition with deft and aplomb -- grappling with one's in-laws. I highly recommend it.

I really did enjoy reading this book and liked the various characters - Gabe, Darlene, ex-MIL, Maisie, Tommy and September. However, the live-in relationship of Maisie's son, Tommy, and his girlfriend, September, bothered me. Maybe I am "old fashioned", but I would not allow a 16 year old child have his girlfriend move into his bedroom with all the intimate benefits with what seemed like no arguements or discussions. That element bothered me. If Tommy had been older (at least an adult), then maybe. None of the other characters seemed to question it, which I also did not understand. Is this now normal? I know stuff goes on, but should a parent be enabling and supporting it for their child? What was the rationale for allowing it? Was this the author's teenage dream to be able to openly sleep with her boyfriend in her bedroom? Maybe it is just me......

Mameve Medwed is a good writer and the stories are satisfying. It was fun to see Seamus O'Toole and Georgette again.