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Friends & Mothers
"Never again will you walk past a group of moms having coffee and cake without dying to know what's going on beneath the surface."
---The Sydney Morning Herald
Five women, all of them mothers, meet regularly for tea and cake. Their lives are consumed by children, school drop-offs, and casual conversations; so their respite at the Vista Cafe is a welcome retreat.
Until the day that Evelyn's baby disappears.
Suffering severe postpartum depression, Evelyn is now in a psychiatric hospital refusing to utter a word---not even any information regarding the whereabouts of her newborn daughter, Amy---leaving her remaining four friends at a loss. In her absence, they begin to piece together Evelyn's life, as a mother and as a woman, and start to take a look at their own lives. What ensues is each woman's uncovering of her own lapsed desires---those dreams and wants that were slowly sidelined or put off for a later date as husband, marriage, and child-rearing became full-time occupations.
Joanna confronts her halfhearted efforts to lose the baby weight from her second child, Sam, who is now three years old. Clare's lifestyle is as unkempt as her hair, a fact that usually has her buying the newest day planner but now makes her question her early beginnings as an artist. Susan is the stereotypical supermom who is never late to pick up her kids, yet she cannot seem to take the same charge when it comes to her own life. And Wendy, though the quietest among them, perhaps has the biggest secrets.
In a darkly humorous manner, guilty secrets and lives are entwined as the suspense builds during the desperate search for Evelyn's missing daughter. Louise Limerick's Friends & Mothers is a vivid and honest portrayal of real motherhood and the challenges and joys that face the women who occupy this role---a contemporary story of the extraordinary strength of love.
International Praise for Friends & Mothers
"A great read . . . [Limerick's] depictions of the minutiae of raising children are lovingly realistic but not overly sentimental."
---The Age (Australia)
"Where Limerick's writing shines is in her buoyant evocation of the sticky, constant, exasperating, and loving realm of small children and their careers. There are many such delicious scenes in this novel."
---The Weekend Australian
"Limerick has a real knack for capturing the small triumphs and tragedies of everyday life . . . a passion and a tenderness for her characters that won us over."
---The Sydney Morning Herald
---The Sydney Morning Herald
Five women, all of them mothers, meet regularly for tea and cake. Their lives are consumed by children, school drop-offs, and casual conversations; so their respite at the Vista Cafe is a welcome retreat.
Until the day that Evelyn's baby disappears.
Suffering severe postpartum depression, Evelyn is now in a psychiatric hospital refusing to utter a word---not even any information regarding the whereabouts of her newborn daughter, Amy---leaving her remaining four friends at a loss. In her absence, they begin to piece together Evelyn's life, as a mother and as a woman, and start to take a look at their own lives. What ensues is each woman's uncovering of her own lapsed desires---those dreams and wants that were slowly sidelined or put off for a later date as husband, marriage, and child-rearing became full-time occupations.
Joanna confronts her halfhearted efforts to lose the baby weight from her second child, Sam, who is now three years old. Clare's lifestyle is as unkempt as her hair, a fact that usually has her buying the newest day planner but now makes her question her early beginnings as an artist. Susan is the stereotypical supermom who is never late to pick up her kids, yet she cannot seem to take the same charge when it comes to her own life. And Wendy, though the quietest among them, perhaps has the biggest secrets.
In a darkly humorous manner, guilty secrets and lives are entwined as the suspense builds during the desperate search for Evelyn's missing daughter. Louise Limerick's Friends & Mothers is a vivid and honest portrayal of real motherhood and the challenges and joys that face the women who occupy this role---a contemporary story of the extraordinary strength of love.
International Praise for Friends & Mothers
"A great read . . . [Limerick's] depictions of the minutiae of raising children are lovingly realistic but not overly sentimental."
---The Age (Australia)
"Where Limerick's writing shines is in her buoyant evocation of the sticky, constant, exasperating, and loving realm of small children and their careers. There are many such delicious scenes in this novel."
---The Weekend Australian
"Limerick has a real knack for capturing the small triumphs and tragedies of everyday life . . . a passion and a tenderness for her characters that won us over."
---The Sydney Morning Herald
272 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
65 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
November 6, 2023
An interesting mystery about 5 women and a baby. What it's lacking in critical feminist thought it makes up for in entertainment and fun. It's a novel of its time, but if you can forgive desperate housewives you can definitely forgive dying for cake. Can't wait to see what the author does next!
July 27, 2021
This book asked some interesting questions but then posed simplistic sedative answers to big questions of mothering, gender, body-hate (and disordered eating), fear of rejection and abandonment etc. The relationships between the women didn't seem very warm, it was more like they were 5 individuals who had to construct the right white-picket-fence life including the girlfriends group.
When you look at it that way, even before adding in the crapness of two of the husbands the mental illness in the book is not surprising. They are suffering from middle-class, capitalist, heteronormativity but it would be too radical to say so, so instead after some POV shifting, some pseudo-poetry and pages and pages of stereotypical female life-stuff like hairdressers' appointments and children's birthday parties and essentialised stuff like "nesting" and having more empathy for the womanising, wife-beating, child-neglecting man than the neurotic, love-starved, hospitalised woman (whose mental illness is her mother's fault of course)- after all this they "discover themselves" in various ways none of them involving real change. Also Susan is really controlling early on in the book and it was hard to accept that anyone would let her get away with that!
2004 seems late for this sort of liberal retreat from proper feminism. I have to acknowledge I've read worse though and the unapologetically Australian setting was enjoyable.
I found it disappointing, and especially the double standard between Steve and Evelyn. I couldn't completely dismiss one thing about the story, which was the way that essential, biological motherhood was found to not always be sufficient (but it was still seen as the norm, and absence of mother-instinct as pathology).
When you look at it that way, even before adding in the crapness of two of the husbands the mental illness in the book is not surprising. They are suffering from middle-class, capitalist, heteronormativity but it would be too radical to say so, so instead after some POV shifting, some pseudo-poetry and pages and pages of stereotypical female life-stuff like hairdressers' appointments and children's birthday parties and essentialised stuff like "nesting" and having more empathy for the womanising, wife-beating, child-neglecting man than the neurotic, love-starved, hospitalised woman (whose mental illness is her mother's fault of course)- after all this they "discover themselves" in various ways none of them involving real change. Also Susan is really controlling early on in the book and it was hard to accept that anyone would let her get away with that!
2004 seems late for this sort of liberal retreat from proper feminism. I have to acknowledge I've read worse though and the unapologetically Australian setting was enjoyable.
I found it disappointing, and especially the double standard between Steve and Evelyn. I couldn't completely dismiss one thing about the story, which was the way that essential, biological motherhood was found to not always be sufficient (but it was still seen as the norm, and absence of mother-instinct as pathology).
February 25, 2013
I devoured this book in a couple of days. An intense, richly flavoured, womanly concoction. Life, death, the whole damn thing. The women in this mother's group are all catapulted into a new stage in their lives when one of the mothers suffers postnatal psychosis. Her chapters are brilliantly written but not easy reading so be warned if you are feeling a bit wobbly, this might be a better book to read later. Each of these mothers is very different, and there is a kind of redemption for all of them in doing things her own way. Ultimately it's a positive message of forgiveness, of others for their imperfections, and above all, of ourselves as mothers. I think it goes quite brilliantly with The Happy Mom Handbook and they might be great for book groups to read together.
May 1, 2021
Interesting book. Sorrowful topic written about in an interesting way.
December 17, 2023
So much angst!!!
April 29, 2024
Not sure what this was supposed to be but it wasn't what I thought it would be. But, overall, I felt compelled to finish it and see what happened to each of the women. I really liked Joanne
March 6, 2026
I read this book maybe 20 years ago.
It's an easy read about mother's and friendship.
And cake.
It's an easy read about mother's and friendship.
And cake.
April 3, 2015
The story is set in Brisbane with a group of ladies who are bound together with friendship and the common bond of motherhood. These ladies all come from differing backgrounds and their friendship lengths vary. Evelyn who is in a psychiatric ward after experiencing some form of mental illness snap....her newborn baby Amy is missing and everyone in the group fear the worst for Amy. We learn of each of the ladies yearning for something more, but grateful they are not Evelyn. So do they relentlessly pursue their yearnings or did they give up this when they became mums.
I enjoyed the narrative that Louise Limerick chose to introduce us to each of the characters and the exposure to mental illness suffered by so many after childbirth. The story was a little slow moving and slightly confusing in some areas, especially when in the character of Evelyn. Overall I enjoyed the story, however there were some areas where I wished the story would move along a little faster.
I enjoyed the narrative that Louise Limerick chose to introduce us to each of the characters and the exposure to mental illness suffered by so many after childbirth. The story was a little slow moving and slightly confusing in some areas, especially when in the character of Evelyn. Overall I enjoyed the story, however there were some areas where I wished the story would move along a little faster.
July 19, 2014
I really enjoyed reading this book and would love to give it more stars, but can't. There are a few things that do not add up to me and a few unanswered questions that bothered me after I finished the book.
The story is about four mothers trying to deal with a friend of theirs, another mother, that either lost, gave away, or killed her new born. The book is dark and funny. The story of the four mothers feels very real. My favorite character in the book is probably Joanna. I wish I could try her cakes!
The story is about four mothers trying to deal with a friend of theirs, another mother, that either lost, gave away, or killed her new born. The book is dark and funny. The story of the four mothers feels very real. My favorite character in the book is probably Joanna. I wish I could try her cakes!
October 20, 2009
Very cleverly written, from many different points of view.
It wasn't quite as polished as it could of been, but a good 1st novel and gripping storyline all the same.
Some very good characters, as well as sexy Steve, and fat Joanna.
It got all a bit predictable from about 100 pages in, and I found it strange how there was little about Susan.
Enjoyed it on the whole, flew through it over the course of 5/6 hours.
It wasn't quite as polished as it could of been, but a good 1st novel and gripping storyline all the same.
Some very good characters, as well as sexy Steve, and fat Joanna.
It got all a bit predictable from about 100 pages in, and I found it strange how there was little about Susan.
Enjoyed it on the whole, flew through it over the course of 5/6 hours.
October 27, 2007
I was hoping for a little more depth and less obviousness to the story. I figured out several "secrets" early in. But I did come to care about some of the characters and the story pulled me in enough to keep reading all the way through. I could see my own fear in Evelyn, who gave away her newborn because she was having a post-partum breakdown.
August 23, 2011
This book is... almost perfect. It's delicate and it's about a sensitive subject: Post Partum Depression. It's intimate and it's judgmental in a way, but that's an accurate portrayal of how moms treat each other in social circles. It's honest and it's heavy, and there is no happily ever after, which I liked about it. I have read it twice and would read it again.
November 27, 2012
Love reading books by local authors. Although I don't usually like this style where each chapter is a different character's perspective, I thought it was done well in this instance. Enjoyed all of the characters and the story rolled along easily. A thought provoking topic, perhaps simplified a little, but would be a good book for a book club discussion.
June 8, 2013
I liked this book more than I thought I would. There are five main characters and the author does a great job of giving them equal billing and making them distinctive. I liked the story and how it unfolded but I really liked the character studies of five very different women reacting to one event that permanently changes their interactions with one another. Recommend.
February 12, 2008
Australian novel about 4 mothers and friends who have another friend who has taken postpartum depression a little far - her infant daughter has disappeared and the friend is not talking. Interesting portrait of characters, but the shifting points of view could be a bit confusing.
August 4, 2009
Questions raised from this book were;
What did William's jewel beetle signify? Was Evelyn's decision to give her baby away selfish or selfless? Are the 4 women feminists? Who did we identify with?
This book would make a good movie, easy read and kept you interested the whole way through.
What did William's jewel beetle signify? Was Evelyn's decision to give her baby away selfish or selfless? Are the 4 women feminists? Who did we identify with?
This book would make a good movie, easy read and kept you interested the whole way through.
August 7, 2008
As I'm reading Little Earthquakes, I'm remembering this book.
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August 11, 2008Very good book, met the Author very nice lady.
February 5, 2011
This book is sad, interesting, and will give everyone something to think about.
July 3, 2015
Good holiday read. Got straight into the book. The storyline was a little confusing at times but I found my way back quickly. I'm still thinking about it a week later.
July 9, 2015
Great book on the rewards and challenges of being a mum. I also love that it is set in Brissie!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews