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Our Mothers' Spirits: Great Writers on the Death of Mothers and the Grief of Men
 
 
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Our Mothers' Spirits: Great Writers on the Death of Mothers and the Grief of Men [Hardcover]

Bob (Ed.) Blauner (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)


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Book Description

November 4, 1997
Much has been written abou the complicated relationship between mothers and their daughters. However, upon the tragic death of Princess Diana, the world turned its eyes to her grieving sons. What legacy did this young mother -- perhaps the world's most famous womann -- leave the young princes William and Harry? The worldwide outpouring of grief that accompanied the unexpected passing of this beautiful and dynamic woman brought to the fore for each of us our own complicated feelings toward our mothers.

It is the enduring bond between mothers and their sons that is explored in this astounding, emotion-packed collection of essays and poems. Editor Bob Blauner has assembled a diverse group of writers on a topic shared by them all: Their sorrow upon the death of a mother and what it means to continue on without her physical presence.

Featured works form some of our greatest writers, including John Updike, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Gus Lee, Russel Baker aned John Cheever, this heartfelt anthology also includes original and provocative essays by some of America's rising stars, such as Peter Najarian and Juan Felipe Harris. Issues such as the loss of a mother who dies too young or, in contrast, the painful sight of an aging mother in decline are explored with great insight. Whether the end comes naturally,through euthanasia or tragically and unexpectedly, how the loss is experienced is handled with great sensitivity.

Our Mothers' Spirits is a collection of personal narratives in which each man tells the story of his mother's life and death. For it is only upon death that we are enabled to see life as a whole. A highly emotional event whether we are 12 years old or 50 years old, a mother's demise causes us to question our values, our reasons for existence. Although this momentous rite of passage certainly transforms each of us, the message of this compassionate, deeply moving book is that a mother's passing does not end our relationship with her -- for her identity has become our own, our life her greatest gift.


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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bob Blauner is currently professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches sociology. He lives in Berkeley with his wife, Karina. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 336 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (November 4, 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060392266
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060392260
  • Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.6 x 1.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,626,507 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Unblinkingly Poignant, April 5, 1999
By A Customer
My roommate, whose mother had died when he was very young, had a hardcover version of Our Mothers' Spirits: Great Writers on the Death of Mothers and the Grief of Men, with the Princess Diane cover. I was immediately turned off by what appeared to be an emotional manipulation by the publisher. When I complained to a friend about the dust jacket illustration, she intimated the book might threaten me more' than the poor taste in design. Thankfully, a few days later I took the time to look at the section titles (Before Death: The Aged Mother; When a Mother Dies Young; Good Deaths, Bad Deaths; Taking Her Own Life: Suicide and Euthanasia; Regret; Alienation; etc.) and I saw there might possibly be something of me and my Mother in this book. When I went to buy the book at a local independent bookstore the sales clerk informed me that all of the hardcover editions had been withdrawn due to the author's protests concerning the dust jacket illustration. The paperback is not so burdened. The essays in this book are not to be read one after the other but due to their impact should be taken in smaller, easier to digest portions. Henry Miller's Unhappy Memories forced me to want to look at my own unhappy memories. I have never properly addressed my own mother's suicide and my father's clumsy attempt to cover it up thirty-five years ago (see Daniel Oberti's The Accident) This book has helped me reinitiate that crucial process in my life. As a hospice volunteer T. .S. Matthew's Dying is Hard Labor and Andrew Solomon's, A Death of One's Own left me not only looking with more empathy at my hospice clients' experiences but my attitude toward my own death and euthanasia. The poetry which begins each section and almost every essay is of a uniformly high quality and do not attempt to manipulate one with idealized conceptions of what the death of one's mother can/should be. These accounts are unblinkingly poignant.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Fine book, terrible marketing ploy (not the author's fault), February 5, 2000
By A Customer
This is a careful scholarly work by a professor emeritus from Berkely. You'd never know it from the tasteless and garish cover the publisher stuck on the hardback edition: it shows the late Princess Diana with her two sons, posed over a coffin that has a note entitled "Mommy". The author offers a detailed account of the crass and clumsy attempt by the publisher to use his scholarly work to cash in on the Princess' death -- an attempt made over his strong protests. The entire story can be read in the March 2000 edition of Brill's Content. Revulsion of the reviewers finally led the publisher to change the cover of the softcover edition to something more tasteful. Don't let the tabloid mindset of the publisher turn you away from an otherwise fine anthology.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "Must read," - helps men look at their own lives, March 20, 1998
This review is from: Our Mothers' Spirits: Great Writers on the Death of Mothers and the Grief of Men (Hardcover)

Editor Bob Blauner has done an exquisite job of weaving together old and new stories on a subject that men don't talk much about -- their relationships with their mothers. Compelling and moving stories. In doing so, he invites and encourages us to look at this aspect of who we are. The "old" stories are drawn from biographies of writers like Wallace Stegner, John Updike, Kirk Douglas, New York Times columnist Russell Baker and Henry Miller. But the "new stories" that Blauner solicited for this anthology are also finely-crafted gems. One of the most moving is a "decline letter" from a man who tells why he finds the subject so difficult and won't be contributing to the anthology.

The most popular feature in MenWeb and the Men's Voices journal is men's personal stories. For the good reason that other men's stories invite us to resonate with our own stories, the truth of our own experience. This book is a "must read," not simply because the stories themselves are beautiful and poignant, but also because they invite us to look into this too-often-neglected yet vitally important part of our own lives.

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First Sentence:
The older I get, the more I look like my mother. Read the first page
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New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, John Updike, Kirk Douglas, Peggy Wellman, Peter Najarian, World War, Gary Young, Hilton Als, Nick Davis, Hemlock Society, Henry Louis Gates, John Cheever, Maggie Myers, Pacific Ocean, Big Mom, Communist Party, Esther Blauner, Los Pirrines, Margaret Boe, Martin Luther King, Nelson Algren, New Left, Stephen Dunn
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