Customer Reviews

MotherKind

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This graceful, moving novel tells a heroic story of ordinary life in a way that echoes long after the book is finished. The passing of power and responsibity from one generation to another, the bittersweet flow of family energy passing through Kate at the center as the death of her mother overlaps the birth of her son, the struggles of a young blended family trying to gain a foothold under the weight of terminal illness...all told touchingly against a backdrop of seasonal holidays, neighbors, birthdays. For anyone with a family, this is a must read. Men and women alike will find that Motherkind resonates with the reality of modern family life, reminding me of many of my own experiences. It serves as a guide for those of us hoping to face the challenges of birth and death, marriage and divorce with courage and clarity.

I finished "Motherkind" just the other night, and I must say, rarely have I experienced such disappointment in a novel. Phillips, the author of the highly acclaimed story collections, "Black Tickets," and "Fast Lanes," and two previous novels, can be a brilliant wriiter. Yet this novel saddened me--not because of the subject matter, which centers on the juggling of a new baby, husband, stepsons, and the death of the protagonist's mother--but because the narrative flow was so often diluted by overly sentimental, maudlin scenes and expository, didactic dialogue, most of which would have succeeded better as narrative. Perhaps having read interviews with Phillips discussing the death of her mother influenced my reading, but I could not help feeling what a dangerous thread of thinly-veiled autobiography Phillips was treading. As a writer, I give her kudos for her courage in tackling a subject so close to her own life and for her lyrical poetic language, yet the novel reinforced my feelings about her earlier novels: as a writer, Phillips is simply better suited to the short form. There are lovely passages, yet the novel as a whole feels hollow, somehow, as if Phillips were never quite able to penetrate the protective membrane in which she has encased it. Sadly, this is not work of a writer--as one would expect it to be--at the height of her powers.

MotherKind is cathartic. The book is full of humor and insight, and best of all, basic human decency. The relationships between mother, daughter, grandmother, lovers, fathers, friends are familiar and believable, carefully described and absolutely convincing. The resolution of each conflict is so satisfying that MotherKind's conclusion has the comforting resolution of a Bach fugue. Masterful. Thank you, Ms. Phillips!

This is one of those books that I wanted to like more than I did. The characters are interesting and the sense of time and place are moving, but ultimately it didn't move me. I suggest people take it out of the library or buy a used copy (as I did) if they're going to buy it.

Anytime a Jayne Anne Phillips book comes out, the temptation is to compare it to her great story collections Black Tickets and Fast Lanes. But Motherkind fails on its own terms, with bland characters and even blander, flabbier scene setting. It's hard to care about a narrator so self-obsessed. Just as a friend's pregnancy is more interesting to her, the narrator seems to think we'll be fascinated by her endless litany of childbearing/childrearing, most of which is old hat. An earlier Phillips would have undercut this sentimentality with vicious irony (without lessening the characters), but here she piles on even more. Her last novel Shelter was overdone too. Maybe it's time to pare down and go back to short fiction.

As a nearly 300 page character study (or relationship study or exercise in putting many beautiful sentences together) this book is first rate. Phillips is clearly a gifted writer. But...I kept waiting for something to happen. Since we know on page 1 that Katherine is dying that no longer counts as the crisis that keeps a good story moving. Perhaps this book should be looked upon as a slice of life--often beautiful, sometimes strikingly mundane--but not the stuff of the engrossing novel I was hoping it might be.

I'm officially done with Jayne Anne Phillips. Having read Lark and Termite and now MotherKind I know for certain that she is definitely not my type. I found the novel extremely boring. You all enjoy if you want, maybe this book is for you, but you'll have to judge yourselves. It is definitely not my kind of book.

This book had great potential, but no point. There were so many loose ends. I guess that's like life, but it doesn't make for good reading. Ugh. Painful.

This book seemed like a glimpse of someone's hectic everyday life. I am amazed I finished it. I enjoyed the author's writing style (some great imagery and thought connections) but the story never amounted to anything. The characters seemed like aquaintences-I knew some details of their lives but I never really cared about them or about getting to know them. The relationships of the main character (her name escapes me) were of interest at first, but again never amount to much. Her relationships with women were strong, her relationship with her husband, disconcerting. The book felt like it was building to something but it never peaked. Can I assume this is the author's comment on life?

If I were to turn back time, I wouldn't read this book but would pick up another by this author. I will consider reading other work of hers in the future.

I found this novel to be extremely moving and luminous. Like all great art, the book takes great risks to achieve its emotionality: it draws on and transforms "real-life" and it even risks what would be in lesser hands sentimentality. The protagonist is a shrewd and funny, yet Phillips doesn't waste our time with a character who uses humor to push away feelings; instead, the novel embraces even the painful responses and arrives at insights that took my breath away.