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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 [Paperback]

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

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Book Description

Publication Date: February 17, 1999
An anthology of poetry and short stories about men's mothers. Subtitled "Great Writers on the Death of Mothers and the Grief of Men," contributors include John Updike, Russell Baker, Kirk Douglas, Art Buchwald, Martin Duberman, John Cheever and Henry Miller.

Writings are grouped into themed chapters with introductory comments by editor Bob Blauner.

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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.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (February 17, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060987316
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060987312
  • Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,299,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Unblinkingly Poignant April 5, 1999
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
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
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
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
Format: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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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The older I get, the more I look like my mother. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
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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