Mum

by Stevan Eldred-Grigg

'What a wonderful woman. My mother, warm and wise.' Mum, a story about a girl and a boy growing up in poverty in the postwar suburbs, is the third in the saga begun with the much-acclaimed Oracles and Miracles. The saga, which also includes The Shining City and Bangs, portrays five generations of a family and the story of an entire provincial society. Mum begins with Ginnie, now in middle age, holding the newborn daughter of her son Jimmy. Ginnie the happy grandmother. Ginnie the 'wonderful woman.' She has come a long way from Oracles and Miracles. But if Jimmy recalls the past as a time of peace and happiness, why does his sister Viv remember it as a nightmare? How are they both to resolve the memories which now surge into the present and demand to be resolved? And why is Ginnie herself at the heart of it all? David Eggleton: 'Stevan Eldred-Grigg has established himself through his novels and histories as the province's most significant and gifted society portrait painter.' Heather Murray: 'The marvels of Eldred-Grigg's third novel underline the wisdom of the earlier ones. ... Eldred-Grigg does not put a foot wrong.'

278 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

New Zealand author, born in 1952.

In 1987 he published his first novel, Oracles and Miracles, the story of two sisters growing up in Christchurch before and during World War II. Since then he has written several fiction and non-fiction books.

Extract from Wikipedia

Reviews

[Robbo · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing (and depressing) end to this third trilogy.