Mothers

by Gloria Goldreich

Eager to give her family a new start in California, impoverished mother of three Stacey Cosgrove agrees to become the surrogate mother for David and Nina Roth, a well-off couple who cannot conceive, but their neat contract soon turns into a vicious battle for custody

512 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Gloria Goldreich graduated from Brandeis University and did graduate work in Jewish history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was a coordinator in the Department of Jewish Education at National Hadassah and served as Public Relations Director of the Baruch College of the City University of New York.
While still an undergraduate at Brandeis, she was a winner of the Seventeen Magazine short story contest where her first nationally published work appeared. Subsequently, her short fiction and critical essays have appeared in Commentary, McCalls, Redbook, Ladies Home Journal, Mademoiselle, Ms., Chatelaine, Hadassah Magazine and numerous other magazines and journals. Her work has been widely anthologized and translated.
She is the author of a series of children's books on women in the professions entitled What Can She Be? She has also written novels for young adults, Ten Traditional Jewish Stories, and she edited a prize-winning anthology A Treasury of Jewish Literature.
Her novel, Leah's Journey won the National Jewish Book Award for fiction in 1979, and her second novel Four Days won the Federation Arts and Letters Award. Her other novels include Promised Land, This Burning Harvest, Leah's Children, West to Eden, Mothers, Years of Dreams and That Year of Our War. Her books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club, the Literary Guild and the Troll Book Club.
She has lectured throughout the United States and in Canada.
Gloria Goldreich is married to an attorney and is the mother of two daughters and a son, and the grandmother of six grandchildren.

Reviews

[Sherrill Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Examines the pros and cons of surrogate motherhood in A LOT (596) of pages, taking us through an entire (exhausting) pregnancy. Since this was written in 1992, many of these issues have been resolved. See Maiken and Amanda's reviews.

Whether Jewish people can accept surrogate motherhood, ("He makes the barren women dwell in her house as the joyful mother of children.") is best debated by rabbis. Should a mother nurse, creating a bond that is difficult to break, however many (sometimes black) "wet nurses" there are? Whyever did Stacy attend the first Seder since it was so traumatic for her? I suppose we needed to hear all about the Jewish customs and the Seder ceremony; ho hum. (Not to discount the Holocaust victims!). Stacy's elder daughter's death, at an opportune time, provides an added factor in the mix. Both couples formed a bond with one another, except for Hal, and was he Stacy's deciding factor? I wonder if Ms. Goldreich couldn't decide upon the ending, either (or her editor) and that's why the abrupt reversals in the last 50 pp??

Draw a chalk circle and put the baby in the middle, and the "real" mother's will choose - but neither mother would choose, the baby would be in the middle crying, they both loved the little one so much. What will happen to Felicia Miriam as she grows older? Will both parents follow up with each other? The true debate is the Nature vs. Nurture question (adoptive parents vs. natural parents) all over again, and the children are torn between. Of course the lawyers got in the way, not writing an airtight contact.

400 pp of blather, to me, and 50 pp of resolution. Perhaps I'm too old to appreciate the debate.

[Maiken · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this really hard to rate as Goldreich captures the struggle around surrogacy and the nuances of motherhood really well.

My issue is with the one-dimensional characters ... The main family members are all wealthy, beautiful, well-rounded people that never really does anything wrong. They naturally are surrounded by beautiful, pleasing objects that are exactly as they should be. The only glitch in this perfect world is non-Jewish family that is forced upon them due to the want of another child. I never really develop a liking for any of the characters and therefor struggled to finish the book.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books about the mother and child relationship. Goldreich explores motherhood from every angle, from the longing for a child to pregnancy to the daily treasures and tedium of mothering young children, as well as the unbearable pain of loss and its consequences.