In this twentieth anniversary edition of the feminist classic In My MotherÂ’s House, Kim Chernin tells the brave and ultimately triumphant story of Rose Chernin, Russian immigrant and passionate Old Left activist, and her daughter Kim, the narrator of this riveting memoir of conflict, confrontation, and reconciliation among four generations of Chernin women.
In My Mother's House
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Review
In My Mother's House is more than a story about four generations of women; more than a documentation of communism, socialist idealism, and its subsequent disillusionment; more than proof of the existence of women who have struggled to fight for what they believed in with bravery and persistence. More than any of this, In My Mother's House is about healing. The book begins with conflict: Rose Chernin asks her daughter, Kim, to write down the story of Rose's life as a communist organizer. Through years of struggling with her own identity and her mother's ideal vision of her, Kim Chernin has separated herself from her mother, and she is wary of the project, not wanting to "face their secrets and silences" or "wake the family's ghosts." Her powerful and persistent mother persuades her, however, and with relaxed sentences that drift into stories of the past, Kim Chernin skillfully, colorfully, and with great affection brings us into the culture of Russian Jews. In the end, she finds writing down the pain in daring honesty allows growth, empathy, and finally understanding, and takes down the walls separating mother and daughter. And as Kim Chernin says "Tell me a story Mama," she is keeping alive a flame handed down to her, one that she will pass on to her own daughter. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. --From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Gloria Bauermeister
About the Author
Kim Chernin is the author of numerous books of nonfiction and fiction, including Crossing the Border and Sex and Other Sacred Games (with Renate Stendhal), The Obsession, The Hungry Self, Reinventing Eve, and The Flame Bearers, and a collection of poetry, The Hunger Song. She lives in Berkeley, California, where she has a private consultation practice.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Mother and daughter revisit their struggles with communism,
By Lee Green (California) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In My Mother's House: A Daughter's Story (Paperback)
A compelling true story about an altruistic woman's growth as a charismatic communist organizer and the challenges/sacrifices she and her family face as a result of her ideals and activism. Starts with the mother's version of her life, including the exhilarating but few years spent in the Soviet Union shortly after the revolution, and ends with daughter's darker experience in Soviet Union and her struggle to accept her mother while rejecting her ideology. "In My Mother's House" provides an eye-opening look at a period of history when ordinary people felt like they truly could change the world. Many may find the stark black and white view of communist activity in America they were taught in school no longer rings true. When the mother and daughter describe their own activities, the reading is effortless. However, when Chernin diverges to comment upon the actual process of storytelling, the reader can become annoyed and bogged down by Chernin's excessive self-absorbed emoting. However, this is a tiny part of the book and can be easily skimmed over. Rose's story is very inspirational. Many will be motivated to look at their own lives and activities and ponder how they can be of more service. Rose Chernin was a tiny woman, but fueled by her strong dedication to justice and fairness, she was able to inspire other idealistic people to change discriminatory laws and create numerous needed community organizations, such as daycare for working women. This is a book about idealism, finding a purpose in life, mothers and daughers, feminism, communism, unions, American history, and much more. A good read for active minds.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating personal accounts of controversial history,
By Xujun Eberlein "xje" (Boston, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In My Mother's House: A Daughter's Story (Paperback)
Poet Kim Chernin wrote the memoir "In My Mother's House" because her mother asked her to, and the book began with her mother's proposal. It took seven years for her to finish writing. The book uses a structure of alternative chapters: one in the present time, in a family setting, with the mother starting to tell a story, and the author expressing her emotions toward her mother and the writing experience; the next from her mother's POV, telling a personal story interwoven with a piece of the American Communist history before and during the McCarthy period. The mother's stories hold my interest throughout, as she was so genuinely enthusiastic about being an organizer of Communist activities, even though it meant she had to go to jail and face deportation. When she lived in the Soviet Union during 1932-34 before WWII, she found that country the realization of her idealistic dream and she loved her life there wholeheartedly. Her experience in America during the McCarthy period, on the other hand, illustrates how cruel and unjust a so-called democratic government can become when it operates on belief instead of the constitution. All this is so controversial. I kept wanting to know what the mother would think after Stalin's crimes were exposed later. It turns out the mother was never disillusioned while the daughter eventually was during her own visit to Moscow in the 1970s. It is the personal accounts of a controversial history that fascinates me, while I'm not sure how much the structure of alternative chapters helped. I think the mother's POV helped a lot, as her voice is quite distinctive from the author's and this made the mother's stories more vivid. I found the author's chapters in between her mother's storytelling somewhat uninteresting with the presentation of her own emotions too repetitive, to the point it got boring. Overall, one flaw cannot mar the jade, "In My Mother's House" was a great read.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Please Notice:,
By
This review is from: In My Mother's House (Harper colophon books) (Paperback)
This is Kim Chernin, merely wishing to point out that you list In My Mother's House as highly available, and as at the same time out of print. It isn't out of print. I hope you can correct this. thanks. Kim
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