Violaine Huisman

Beautiful and charismatic, Catherine, a.k.a. "Maman," smokes too much, drives too fast, laughs too hard, and loves too extravagantly. During a joyful and chaotic childhood in Paris, her daughter Violaine wouldn't have it any other way. But when Maman is hospitalized after a third divorce and a breakdown, everything changes. As the story of Catherine's own traumatic childhood and adolescence unfolds, the pieces come together to form an indelible portrait of a mother as irresistible as she is impossible, as triumphant as she is transgressive. Print run 60,000.

A Novel

The Book of Mother

dija

Fraser Simons

I am a sucker for narratives by children telling the story of their parents as they understand it, admitting that it was cobbled together and it’s the best they can make of it. In this case, because the mother mythologized herself with her well intentioned obfuscation when her two young girls would ask about things hard to express, especially because she was not well educated and was born with health issues that dogged her and altered her whole life.

Part 1 is the narrators childhood rumination on her mother and part 2 is the narrative of her mother, then it wraps up with present day. It is so compelling because it is rather matter-of-fact. Hardly a saint, and progressive in her own ways, especially in those times, there’s a juxtaposition as the narration catches up to the childrens misunderstanding or consternations of how and why she acts how she does. It is undeniably loving and non judgemental, which is a massive feat given the wide range of emotions and events the larger-than-life figure the mother cut. 

At once the eye of an investigative reporter and a daughter and self insert in the story, the prose are excellent and pulled me right in without letting go. Narration was fantastic, mirroring the tone and voice that could easily have created a dissonance with such a personal work. It must have been a bit harrowing trusting it to a voice actor, but it’s completely to the pieces benefit. 

Impossible to stop listening to, though undeniably filled with verisimilitude done right. This is the kind of memoir I love: ones which highlight how a “normal” person, every day in their interactions is extraordinary in their own ways. And most of all: interesting. So many people consider their lives to be not worth sharing or boring, but everyone’s story, when honed and drilled down, is a human experience worth sharing.

The Book of Mother A Novel

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