Title
|
Motherless Daughters: A Legacy of Loss
|
Author
| Hope Edelman |
Publisher
| Da Capo Press |
Publication Date
|
21 March 2006 (2nd Edition)
|
Pages
| 426 |
Genre
| Family, Social, Death and Dying |
From the blurp:
' For all women who have lost their mohers and who have looked for comfort and understanding, here at last is a brave and powerful book offering experience and insight. Ask any women who has lost her mother at an early (or any) age and she will tell you that her life is irrevocably altered: that this one fact forever changes who she is and who she will be. This is the first book that examines the profound effects of this loss on a woman's identity, personality, family, and life choices both immediately and as her life goes on.
Hope Edelman lost her own mother when she was seventeen. Her own story is interwoven with those of many others keen to share their common experience. In their own words they express how growing up without a mother continues to affect them in so many ways. Powerful and illuminating, it is a book which helps motherless women everywhere understand they are not alone'.
I got this book out of the library and had planned to read it in connection with my job, as I am dealing with bereaved people on a daily basis. I found this book often too emotional to read and found it very hard to detach myself, couldn't help but think that one day I will have to face this. (Luckily, I still have my mum). While I usually find it easy to detach myself from the subject at work, it was harder here, and I'm not sure it helped me a lot with my work, as I found it just upsetting. We usually get taught 'Show empathy, not pity', and that's what I try to do. I suppose if you are a bereaved daughter the book might help you to see that you are not alone and many others feel in a similar way.