Moeders en dochters - Verhalen

by Christine Park (Editor), Caroline Heaton (Editor), Mariëlla de Kuyper (Translator)

Colette, Margaret Atwood, Jeanette Winterson, Michelene Wandor, Dina Mehta, Emily Prager, Jane Gardam, Alison Fell, Jamaica Kincaid, Sue Miller, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Ama Ata Aidoo, Alice Walker, Sylvia Plath, Fay Zwicky, Efua Sutherland, Fay Weldon, Dikken Zwilgmeyer, George Egerton, Janet Frame, Alice Munro, Judith Chernaik, Jan Clausen, Katherine Mansfield, Zhang Jie

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

340 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 1987

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) There were two stories I’d encountered before: Margaret Atwood’s “Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother,” originally published in Bluebeard’s Egg; and Alice Munro’s “Princess Ida” from Lives of Girls and Women. The title phrase comes from Jamaica Kincaid’s story. A recurring theme is women’s expectations for their daughters, who might repeat or reject their own experiences. As the editors quote from Simone de Beauvoir in the introduction, “the daughter is for the mother at once her double and another person.”

So in Emily Prager’s “A Visit from the Footbinder,” Lady Guo Guo subjects her spirited daughter to the same painful procedure she underwent as a child. The cultural detail was overpowering in this one, like the author felt she had to prove she’d done her research on China. The father–daughter relationship struck me more in Judith Chernaik’s Jewish Brooklyn-set “Honor Thy Father and Thy Mother.”

From this later batch (I’d read 14 of 25 in 2021), two stood out the most: in “Children’s Liberation” by Jan Clausen, Lisa rebels against her lesbian mother’s bohemian lifestyle by idolizing heterosexual love stories; and in Zhang Jie’s “Love Must Not Be Forgotten,” a daughter comes to understand her mother by reading her diary about her doomed romance.

Overall, I particularly liked “The Pangs of Love” by Jane Gardam, a retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale of “The Little Mermaid,” and “Swans” by Janet Frame, in which a mother takes her two little girls for a cheeky weekday trip to the beach. Fay and Totty are dismayed to learn that their mother is fallible: she chose the wrong beach, one without amenities, and can’t guarantee that all will be well on their return. A dusky lagoon full of black swans is an alluring image of peace, quickly negated by the unpleasant scene that greets them at home.

Two overall standouts thus far were “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker and “The Unnatural Mother” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In Walker’s story, which draws on the parable of the Prodigal Son, a hip Afro-wearing daughter returns to her mother’s rural home and covets the quilts and butter churn – to her this is quaint folk art that she wants to take away and display, but her mother and sister resent her condescension towards their ‘backward’ lives.

Gilman is best known for The Yellow Wallpaper, but this story has a neat connection with another classic work: the main character is named Esther Greenwood, which is also the protagonist’s name in Plath’s The Bell Jar. A gossiping gaggle of women discuss Esther’s feral upbringing and blame it for her prioritizing altruism over her duty to her child. A perfect story.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.

[Lisa Kloosterziel · Rating 5 out of 5]

meerdere korte verhalen of één doorlopend verhaal over een gezamenlijke moeder ?? 🗣️

[Angel · Rating 5 out of 5]

An unusual collection of short stories featuring daughters and their mother-figures.

I gave this five stars for a variety of reasons:

1. Sheer range. The authors, the story style (semi-autobiographical, post modern, retelling of a fairy tale, historical etc), the cultures, the pacing - I wasn't bored for a moment, regardless of how much I liked each story. And the authorship ranged from very well-known authors (Sylvia Plath, Margaret Atwood) to authors I hadn't heard of.

2. Pacing. The order the stories are presented in is fantastic. It can be difficult to keep momentum in a collection of short stories, but they were ordered in a way that made it easy to keep going on to the next story.

3. Topic. The stories weren't written for this collection, so they aren't all obvious in their approach to the mother-daughter relationship. As a result, there isn't an overarching message, which I really liked. Each story was allowed to bring up and treat differently the (often difficult) emotions brought up by the bond. Regardless of your relationship with your mother, you will find a story that you relate to and that makes you die a little on the inside. It ends up feeling very truthful, which I don't always feel when reading mother-daughter stories.

4. It just contained some really lovely stories. My favourites were 'The Voice of Authority' by Dina Mehta, and 'Everyday Use' by Alice Walker, because I related to them the most. I don't think I'll forget the story 'A Visit from the Foot Binder' any time soon either.

The other reviews here don't seem to like Jamaica Kingsland's piece 'My Mother,' and I can admit it's an acquired taste. It's heavily symbolic, and if you're not interested in working out the meaning of every sentence, it might be worth skipping. It reads like a series of dreams, so I guess it depends if you're the kind of person who likes to listen to other people describe their dreams. If you're interested in it, it reveals a really complex and intense relationship relationship where both mother and daughter fight for physical and emotional space, keeping in mind the unbreakable tie between them. I enjoyed it.

5 stars, will pick through it again.

[Gabriel Eggers · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found some of the stories very compelling, a couple horrifying, a few amusing. Most of them made me think, some had far more interest and impact then others. There were a few that I just didn't understand, or like, or that seemed to not really focus on the subject of the collection the way one would expect. As a man I sure can't relate as closely to some of these stories, as many women can, but it was a worthwhile read for those few stories that really stood out. Perhaps this book deserves a higher rating, but this is how I felt about it, a combination of impressed, horrified, confused, engaged, and disinterested.

[Leonie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wat een prachtige verhalen! Dit boek had ik uit een mini-bieb en daarom waren m'n verwachtingen laag, maar het heeft me op een prettige manier verrast. De verhalen zijn heel divers, zowel qua thematiek, als cultuur en tijd waar het zich afspeelt. Op een of andere manier voelde ik me echt verbonden met de vrouwen en meisjes in de verhalen en de worstelingen en geneugten van hun leven.

[Jo Birkett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good extracts but I generally don't like collections of short stories and these are not even stories but extracts. I didn't come away with a feeling that it focussed on mothers & daughters either.

[Barbara Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag, but worth reading for Atwood, Munroe and the star story by Colette.

[Shatov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a keeper. I enjoyed every story except Jamaica Kincaid's abstract fantasy piece. Park & Heaton did a great job in curating a wide variety of writers, all providing quality short stories.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine collection about the mother-daughter bond, though one - "Given Names" - is about the close relationship between a girl and her aunt who is only a couple of years older than her.

As I have said in other reviews of short story collections, there is usually one stand out story for me in any collection, but here there were three: "Given Names", "A Visit From The Footbinder", and "Love Must Never Be Forgotten". All good enough to revisit again and again over the years.

If I had to offer a criticism, it would be that most stories (in my memory) are told from the daughter's point of view. But nitpicking aside, this is worth the read.

[SmarterLilac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really great collection of fiction about an interesting and delicate topic. These stories span a wide range of emotions and cultures, and I think most people will find something to love in here. Some pieces are not for the squeamish, however, as the book did not shy away from detailing the less savory aspects of motherhood (the story "A Visit from the Footbinder" is gruesome.)

[Melskepko · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice collection. Sometimes stressful