Mothers and Daughters [Hardcover]

Carol Saline (Author), Sharon J. Wohlmuth (Author), Marysarah Quinn (Designer)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 14, 1997

When Carol Saline and Sharon J. Wohlmuth created Sisters in 1994, they took America by storm, captivating countless readers with their poignant exploration of sisterhood.  In this beautiful new volume, they turn their empathy and perception to a territory perhaps even more intimate--the intense connection shared by mothers and daughters.

The profoundly personal experiences of the women portrayed in these original essays and photographs illuminate a relationship that is awe-inspiring in its power and depth.  Some of these women are well known: Cindy Crawford, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Margaret Atwood, and Jamie Lee Curtis all speak of their own relationships in these pages.  There is also wisdom to be found in the words of a ninety-six-year-old great-grandmother with her nine daughters; a mother and daughter who have fled the war in Bosnia for an uncertain future in New York; and a woman who received a kidney transplant as a last gift from her dying mother.  Whether the speakers are famous or not, their stories and portraits express universal feelings of tenderness, pride, and a love so fierce that it is sometimes painful.  Mothers and Daughters is a stunning and evocative tribute to this unbreakable bond.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Carol Saline and Sharon J. Wohlmuth once again explore the familial bonds of women in this charming follow-up to their 1994 smash hit Sisters. In words and pictures, Mothers and Daughters reveals the varied and perennial nature of this complicated family bond. Most of the daughters in this collection are adult women. Some are stepchildren, others adopted from other nations, and still others, including model Cindy Crawford, author Margaret Atwood, and cartoonist Cathy Guisewite, are famous. Wohlmuth's posed, black-and-white photos of the two generations reveal relationships that rival the intensity of romance. In these pictures, some mothers curl protectively around their daughters, some of the women stand side-by-side, embracing like old friends, and occasionally the subjects stand apart from one another, like partners in a difficult marriage. Saline's interviews probe delicately beneath the surface of the portraits. "Do you love your mother, Jacki?" Saline asks one subject, who answers, "without question." But when Saline asks, "Do you like your mother?" Jacki replies more ambiguously: "Well...." This book will inspire mothers and daughters to reflect on the importance of their own relationship. --Maria Dolan

From Booklist

Saline and Wohlmuth's Sisters (1994) was a surprise best-seller. Its combination of Wohlmuth's sensitive portrait photography and journalist Saline's profiles, People magazine^-like but better, of female siblings proved to have a market eagerly awaiting it. A wised-up Doubleday plans a 450,000-copy first printing and publicity to match for Sisters' sequel, which presents 38 maternal relationships. The 38 encompass pretty nearly every imaginable set of relational circumstances: solid "traditional" families, lesbian comothers, single mothers, daughters caring for elderly mothers, a mother caring for her mentally impaired 25-year-old daughter, and even a daughter with both an adoptive mother and a recently met birth mother. There are several mothers and daughters who follow the same profession or are partners in the same endeavor. A few are famous, in one generation (e.g., cartoonist Cathy Guisewite and her mother, actress Lynn Redgrave and her two daughters) or both (e.g., actress Janet Leigh and her daughter, actress Jamie Leigh Curtis), but some of the best stories are those of "ordinary" women. What's more, Wohlmuth's photographic skill makes every woman and girl in the book a beauty. Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 127 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (April 14, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038548125X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385481250
• Product Dimensions: 11.5 x 9.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,276,547 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Occasionally Uplifting, Often Contentious, December 16, 2000

By 

W. E. Fleming (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mothers and Daughters (Hardcover)

I purchased this book as a holiday gift for my child's teacher. She has a close but intense relationship with her mother, and I thought she would enjoy the topic. Now, I have my fingers crossed and am holding my breath a bit. The black and white photography is beautifully compelling. At times, it is excruciatingly sad (for example, the photo of a woman who has lost her daughter to a drunk driver sits alone in her child's room, another of a daughter hugging her mom's gravestone.)

The accompanying short profiles/ stories are tersely, crisply written. They can be truly uplifting, like one very personal tale, which recounts a woman's battle with breast cancer and how she later overcomes her shame in her daughters seeing her post-surgery breasts. Another tale tells of a daughter who has cared for her ailing mother at home for decades, changing diapers and preparing pureed food. Virtually all of the relationships, however, reveal palpable strains of deep-seated anger, regret or misunderstanding. Many of the women have suffered intensely; many have healed from their own bad marriages and divorces.

For a young woman like myself who now has a small daughter and who recently lost a mother, the book was absorbing though it strangely lacked hope. My favorite profile was of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; she seems like a type A mom but happy with her family and the personal and career choices she has made. Her daughter teases her mother, but seems secretly grateful for the upbringing she received. You sense that they appreciate each other, despite differences.

If you are considering this book for a friend, it would probably be most appreciated by someone who has survived many ups and downs with her mom. Those mother and daughter pairs who pal around together and who consider themselves good friends may be strangely put off by the tragedy and simmering warfare in between many of the pictures.

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, April 24, 2009

By 

Elliott E. Kaebnick "fun reader" (PA, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mothers and Daughters (Hardcover)

I was never notified by Amazon that this product was no longer available. Finally found it "buried" in some information after I had waited for more than 3 weeks for delivery. I would suggest that you begin a direct notification to the "buyer" that the product is no longer available.

5.0 out of 5 stars Mothers and Daughters, June 27, 2007

By 

B. Litzinger (California) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mothers and Daughters (Hardcover)

I received this book as a gift when it was first published. Thanks to Amazon.com I was able to find a new copy of an out of print book for a Christmas gift to give to someone special.