The Lost Mother: A Novel

by Mary McGarry Morris

The lost mother is the riveting chronicle of the Talcotts, a family in rural Vermont during the Great Depression. Abandoned by his beautiful wife, Irene, Henry and their two young children, Thomas and Margaret, spend that summer in a tent on the edge of Black Pond. Henry, an itinerant butcher, struggles to provide for them, but often must leave them alone as he travels the county in search of work. He has not told the children why their mother left or if she'll return. When Mrs. Phyllis Farley, a prosperous neighbor, begins to woo the children as companions for her strange, housebound son, Henry must weigh an unusual proposition, the consequences of which may cost him everything.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Adult Fiction, Family, Book Club, Adult, Historical

288 pages, Hardcover

First published February 17, 2005

About the author

Mary McGarry Morris is an American novelist, short story author and playwright from New England. She uses its towns as settings for her works. In 1991, Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times described Morris as "one of the most skillful new writers at work in America today"; The Washington Post has described her as a "superb storyteller"; and The Miami Herald has called her "one of our finest American writers".
She has been most often compared to John Steinbeck and Carson McCullers. Although her writing style is different, Morris also has been compared to William Faulkner for her character-driven storytelling. She was a finalist for the National Book Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. As of 2011, Morris has published eight novels, some of which were best-sellers, and numerous short stories. She also has written a play about the insanity trial of Mary Todd Lincoln.

Reviews

[Barb H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary McGarry Morris has written a touching, often disturbing novel. Her style is simple, yet moving and vivid. Set in rural Vermont during the Great Depression, the sense of loss and the lack of even the simplest of material possessions pervades the atmosphere of this book. Even the smallest glimmer of hope for "better times" is quickly dashed by the circumstances of life for these people in their struggles as they sink deeper into deprivation and suffering.

Henry Talcott, an itinerant worker, taciturn and disillusioned, is further embittered by the mysterious abandoment by his wife. Left to care for their two children, Thomas and Margaret, in desperation he sets out to seek profitable employment. The two children are left to fend for themselves and are temporarily rescued by an unthinking, often cruel and unkind, wealthy family.

The characters are well developed and described with care and clarity.The plight of the children is intensely felt by the reader.
This is a simple book, but it has much to tell about the period.

************************************
Frankly, I had not intended to reread this, but I forgot I read it several years ago. It did become very familiar as I progressed and I recalled my prior exposure to it. My opinion has not altered!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to throw in my two cents just because I'm so irritated with all the reviews that call this book "bad" because it is sad. They are not the same thing. If you don't like sad books, try to avoid them. But if sad books were automatically "bad," then that would make most of the world's great literature "bad." Literature is about the human condition, which is not always rainbows and lollipops.

Now, to this book: it is not great literature. Not because it's sad, but because it's so implausible. This is the story of a family hit hard by the Great Depression. Mom walks out on Dad; Dad loses the house; family lives in a tent until winter, when the children are taken in and kicked out by various family members. Finally, the wealthy family behind all of Dad's troubles wants to adopt the adorable little sister -- but that goes south too.

Finally, the children run off to find their mother -- who hands them off first to an orphanage, then to the hideous wealthy family. And who comes running in at the last possible second to save the day? Dad!!! THAT's the not-so-great part about this novel.

So, if you would like a watered-down version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn with a lot less historical color, feel free to read this highly sentimental novel. But please don't call it bad just because most of it is "sad."

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a sad, heartbreaking story. Thomas and Margaret went through so much simply because their parents married for the wrong reasons and were unwilling or unable to put their children’s needs before their own needs. Irene was self centered and probably could have used some counseling. Henry was stubborn and too proud to ask for help. The Farleys and Aunt Lena were just despicable people. It was a good book but I wouldn’t want to read another this depressing for awhile.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book very much. It was a tale of hard times amidst hard times. The setting was the Great Depression but the struggles were not only grounded in poverty but in family values. The powerlessness of being a kid was the gripping theme. Terrible injustices and just plain bad luck attempt to defeat two siblings who try to find their way home to ordinary comforts that we take for granted. I wept with joy and ground my teeth in anger. I could not put this quick read down. I just had to know if Thomas( the 12 year old protagonist) would prevail.

[Sterlingcindysu · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book was written 8 years earlier, it has the same plot as Whistling Past the Graveyard in that a child/ren look for their mother who took off for greener pastures and suffer horrible events along the way. While I didn't really care for Graveyard, I did for this one.

First, the children represented acted their age. The older boy (12) does some nasty things to his sister (both verbal and physical) but you expect a kid that age to act out. You expect the sister to want pretty things to wear and eat. The handicapped boy wasn't developmentally delayed, so he acted like a normal 16 year old. All the characters showed their warts.

Then there were characters who were simply flawed and did the best they could, for example, the kids' drunk aunt. The rich couple both had issues of their own and had an agenda of their own but in the meanwhile the kids had a roof over their head and food to eat.

It's ironic that the kids' story mirrored the father's so much in the households that took them in. (Henry-Gladys, Margaret-Jesse-boy).

This takes place during the Depression so you have all that going on with the personal narratives.

Thumbs down for the cover--Margaret was described as beautiful, with long blonde ringlets and I think the girl on the front looks like Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird.

[Judy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I HATED this book. Maybe that wasn't strong enough. I really hated this book. Why I finished it is beyond me. What a total downer. Oh no, I'm wrong. The last chapter was redemptive. Only you had to wade through hundreds of pages of total downer to get the 15 pages of everything turns out fine. This book features a runaway mother who ultimately turns her children over to an orphanage, then tries to adopt out the daughter to the wealthy couple who were horrible. Why you ask? Well, there's a creepy relationship between the wealthy mother and her handicapped son--she wants 12 year old Thomas and 8 year Margaret to live in her house as playmates to her son. Then the son tries some creepy behavior toward the 8 year old. Need I go on? Has the whole world gone crazy for these children? I forgot to mention that the wealthy family had their father put into jail. I could go on, but I'm remembering too much of the plot.

[Morgan Speers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually a 3.5. It’s not going to be a new favourite but it is incredibly well written. It’s so sad, you just feel everything getting worse until you’re sure it can’t get worse and then it does. I liked it but it’s a real downer to be sure.

[The Dusty Jacket · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s the Great Depression, and everything that Henry Talcott owns or is most precious to him is contained in a single tent—his knives, saws, and cleavers as well as his two young children, Thomas (12) and Margaret (8). Henry slaughters animals for a living, but work is scarce and money is getting harder to come by. His wife, Irene, abandoned the family years earlier and now Henry finds himself having to leave his children alone more often as he travels to find work. When his wealthy neighbor, Phyllis Farley, begins to lure his children to her home as a means of providing companionship for her wheelchair-bound son, Henry’s firm hold on his family slowly begins to loosen.

"The Lost Mother" is an aching, somber, and dark novel about a father’s desperate attempt to keep his family together while two young siblings grapple with their own feelings of loyalty, love, and loathing toward one another. Morris’s book overflows with passion and her multi-dimensional characters evoke myriad emotions from her readers: pity for a single father doing his best under the most hopeless of circumstances; disdain for the crooked shopkeeper who swindles an honest boy; sympathy for a little sister enduring endless verbal and emotional assaults from her brother; contempt for a wealthy neighbor and her disingenuous benevolence; and disgust for a beautiful mother who callously abandons her children for a better life. Morris is able to successfully rein in all of our feelings while maintaining the story’s momentum by centering every action around a recurring theme of home, family, and togetherness.

In the song “You Always Hurt the One You Love”, there are lyrics that accurately describe several characters in this book: "You always hurt the one you love/ The one you shouldn't hurt at all/ You always take the sweetest rose/ And crush it till the petals fall". These characters love so deeply and wholly that they simply cannot recognize the negative impact that their behavior is having on those closest to them. But despite these flawed characters, Morris gives us a ray of hope through Henry and his children. Together, the three of them manage to rise above their circumstances and prove that they are much more than society has labeled them. Henry, Thomas, and Margaret Talcott remind us that worth and security are not something that you hold in a wallet. Instead, the greatest treasure is sometimes found in a pair of arms that are opened and are waiting for you…just for you.

[Anita · Rating 4 out of 5]

This historical fiction novel is set during the Great Depression and focuses on the hardships of that time. It follows two children whose mother has left her husband and their father who has been imprisoned. The children are taken in by a family with a special needs son who wanted a companion for their child, but who also have some disfunctional issues in their lives. Good characters and a good plot. The descriptions are really well written and blend nicely with the plot without slowing the pace of the story. 4/5 stars.

[Susan Mullen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a sad book but very poignant and a good reminder of the total vulnerability of children and their whole hearted, young love of their parents.

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars.

[Tricia Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing! What an excellent story. I would give it ten stars if I could!

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the writing technique of this author. The author kept the reader intrigued . Every chapter kept me on the edge wondering if the storyline had a silver lining! It was a sad story about two children who are abandoned by their mother snd trying to survive life with their father during the depression. The father had few skills and was trying his best when things go from bad to worst pretty quickly, but the ending was satisfying. I would recommend it!

[jimtown · Rating 4 out of 5]

The impact childhood has on our lives can never be underestimated. Young Thomas finds life to be most unfair and he often takes his frustration out on his little sister Margaret when things get the best of him. He lets her kitten drown and tells her she's the reason their mother left. Still, Thomas cherishes Margaret as everyone does. She's a beautiful, well mannered and happy child. Or is she? Margaret has learned her role well. At first it seems she has an unfailing Pollyanna attitude about her meager life. She seems to make the best of everything and is always hopeful.

Times are hard, not the kind of hard we have in America today, but really hardship, poor, hard for most folks and Thomas and Margaret are living in a tent on someone else's property. Their mother is gone. Their father works long hours butchering livestock for a living. He has little to say about their mother being gone other than that she took a job in a factory and she'll be back. It's a hope and belief that the children cling to as things start to spiral out of control.

It starts the day Thomas leaves Margaret alone in the tent and walks to town to buy a pocket knife. His worries over her are nothing compared to what's ahead. The tent is gone one night when their father gets home from work. Life is not kind to him either and he ends up in jail and the children are moved from one home to another. There is one well off family that desperately wants them it seems. The Farley's work hard to woo the children and strike a deal that they stay with them. Their son, Jesse-boy is so taken with little Margaret and his mother tries to make up for his illness by catering to his every whim.

Thomas and Margaret soon find that all the warm food, cake for breakfast, comfortable beds and nice clothes still don't make a home and they desperately need to get out of the Farley's house as Margaret is in danger there. One night the time is right and they steal eight dollars from Mrs. Farley's purse and take the bus to find their mother.

A sad story of neglect, strength and love that triumphs in the end, for some of them that is...

[Lisa Weber · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be a thoroughly depressing read. I actually listened to it on CD, and found I had to bring the CDs in from the car to finish them in the house so I could hear the end and get it over with!

The Lost Mother portrays the nightmarish lives of 2 children, 12 year old Thomas and his sister, 8 year old Margaret, who are forced to depend upon one another during the darkest days of the depression. The themes of family love, of emotional abuse, of violence done and the struggle to control the violence within oneself are consistent, yet difficult to face. Mary McGarry Morris' world is one in which children are useful scapegoats and disrespected pawns, and adults are almost consistently selfish and untrustworthy. The cruelty shown to the children by supposed adults is truly staggering. And yet the truth revealed in the novel seems to be based in a hard core of 1930's reality.

On the positive side, the book is very well written, with excellent characterization. The very quirky characters, while almost completely unlikeable, seem realistic. The main characters are skillfully drawn, exposing the conflicting emotions and the multiple facets of personality that we all experience. The reader is forced to face the ever-changing balance between need and want, love and hurt.

Thank goodness for the wrap-up in the last chapter, which casts casts some perspective on the dismal experiences of the children, and reminds us that with its ups and downs, life does indeed go on.

Personally, I will not seek out any more of Morris' dismal books.

[JudiAnne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writings of Mary McGarry Morris almost alway contain stories that hit close to soul and pull at your heart strings. "The Lost Mother" is truly a tale of the human condition and anyone who has been a parent will relate to it, making it impossible to put down.

It is the story of a broken family in depression era Vermont. Henry Talcott is left with his two children, 12 year old Thomas and 8 year old Margaret, after his wife Irene leaves them just after the death of her baby boy. They are put out of their house and live in a tent in the woods. Eventually, when the desperation is deep, the children are taken in by people in the town, only to become a disastrous situation and they are turned over to an orphanage.

The tragic story of this family will make you sad but you will want to cheer them on while they search for a better life.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was so unrelentingly bleak, I snuck a peek at its synopsis to see if it might have, if not a happy ending, at least some moment of redemption. That kept me reading, but I'm not sure the scant hope at the end merited the slog through despair of the rest of the book. That said, Morris tells a compelling tale of children suffering during the Depression; of adults who for a variety of reasons cannot provide this brother and sister with emotional or physical support; of many characters who can only see their own needs and point of view. I have a feeling this book will stay with me, however, and I doubt I forget either the children, their parents, or some of the other adults in the book.

[Lauriann · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a relentless barrage of sadness, woe, poverty and desperate lives. So much that I just couldn't push the rating beyond two stars. Henry and Margaret were abandoned by their mother and left in desperate poverty with their father who loved them but could not provide for them during the depression. Their little hearts were broken over and over again by ill-intentioned people, shame, loneliness, injustice and longing for their mother who never loved them. There were actually two adults in the book (one being their father Henry) who genuinely cared about them, and it was my own quest to know if they would end up with these people that kept me reading this book. Please don't start this book if you're having a bad day.

[Adrian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not worth the time of day. The excessive cussing was mild compared to the sexual allusions. There's a 15 year old boy who shows his porn sketches to a 12 year old boy and an 8 year old girl--and tells them about female anatomy. This same 15 year old twice tries to get the 8 year old girl to sleep with him. It's hinted around that his mother knows what he's doing but isn't saying or doing anything about it. The two main characters' mother works as a mistress to a wealthy business man and the children frequently hear the two adults making love. Another woman is likened to a cow in heat. Heaps of child abuse, and not worth reading. The plot was unrealistic and I doubt that the story would have ended so hopefully. Not recommended.

[Lesley · Rating 3 out of 5]

MOST DEPRESSING BOOK EVER! Well, maybe not ever, but it was very sad and tragic for these young children, Thomas and Margaret. There mother leaves them to be a mistress and their father is wrongly imprisoned and then you throw in the crazy Farley family and you’ve got two messed up kids. It just kept getting worse and worse for the kids almost to the point of wanting to stop reading. However, you know that something good has to come out of it and the author couldn’t just leave those kids out to dry. This wasn’t a bad book at all; it just took a lot to get through some of the hard times. The poor girls kitten drowns, tell me that doesn’t kill your mood.

[Lori Johnston · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though the topic of this book and the sad state of the children in this book just made me cringe, I thought the story was well told and well written. One might think that after being a foster parent for more than 10 years now I might understand all that can happen in someones life that they would abandon their children but still to this day, I find it so hard to imagine being in that position. I wish that no children would ever have to go through what these kids went through I am just glad that in the book there is a resolution in the end. Very thought provoking book for me although it felt more like a short story than a full read as it was so short compared to what I am used to.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know how to rate this book exactly. It wasn't that it was poorly written--actually it does a pretty good job of depicting rural life in the Great Depression. It certainly brought out the worst in people. But the reality of the depression is that it is, well, depressing.

Interesting example of how children protect themselves from reality by twisting it and creating logical explanations for the explainable. The story just goes from bad to worse, then from worse to desperate. By the end it was hard to even get through wondering if there was going to be some light at the end. Thought it wrapped up too quickly after wading through it.

[Carolann · Rating 1 out of 5]

What an awful book!

I read almost a 100 pages and not one good thing happened to these people


The page I ended with a little girls hair was on fire, her scalp burnt.



This book is manipulative and dull.

I really felt like my emotions were being toyed with for no reason.

The author is content instead of writing a good story to just heap piles of gloom onto the readers head.

What a waste of trees and time.
I used to think Ethan Frome was the worst, this comes in a close second

[Tessyohnka · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking for a tale of relentless hardship and injustice heaped on a 12 year old boy, this is the book for you. How can one poor child be surrounded by so many cruel and/or corrupt people? His father doesn't listen or take his side, his sister is like a stone in his shoe and Gladys, one of only two people good to him has an evil father. I can't imagine anyone reading this book and not rooting for Gladys to stick a sock in her fathers mouth and take care of those kids. All this and the kitten drowns.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book but sad as all get out. I hope that children in America never have to suffer the kind of deprivation the Talbots's endured during the depression. This story is a great reminder of the reason we have SNAP benefits, Medicaid, and welfare. People who live in nice homes, have jobs that can support their lifestyle but moan and groan about the "takers" who don't do their share, should try a bit harder to understand why these benefits are vital in today's society. Perhaps they should read a book like this one before they start complaining.

[Audrey Glick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Relentlessly dismal, this is the depression era story of two young children whose mother left them with their father. He lost their Vermont home and the three of them lived together in a tent on what used to be his own property, until the new owner forced them out. The sadness goes on and on as the children refuse to give up hope that their mother will return. Whew! It's time for something light and fluffy!

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can take sadness, but only when it functions. This was more like tragedy porn. It was so constantly hopeless that there was no tension. Without tension, it only could fall back on cheap shots to get any emotion at all. The characters and story are good, which just makes it that much more disappointing that the tension couldn’t have been handled. This would have only held up the length of a short story. In this form it just doesn’t work right.

[Marcie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked up this book thinking that it would be interesting to read about the everyday life of a family during the depression, but I was WRONG. I don't think a single good thing happened to anyone in this book; the family's initial tragic circumstances just kept getting worse and worse. I have rarely read a book that made me feel so depressed.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, this was a sad book, but written honestly with well developed characters and a well drawn plot. Very believable, this is how life can be. Mary McGarry Morris is a terrific writer.

[Mom (Melanie) · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry I read this.