MotherKind

By Jayne Anne Phillips

Book Overview

From the greatly praised author of Machine Dreams and Shelter, a major new novel.

MotherKind is the story of Kate, whose care for her terminally ill mother coincides with the birth of her first child and the early months of a young marriage. She must, in a single year, come to terms with radiant beginnings and profound loss. MotherKind is a delicately layered narrative in which the details of daily life resonate with import and meaning.

We enter Kate's present world of first and second families, babies and lively stepchildren, neighbors and friends, baby-sitters and wise strangers. Images of her not-so-long-ago past intermingle in a turning of the seasons marked by the gradual fading of her mother, the strong woman who has been her friend, her guiding star and her counterpart across a divide of experience and years.

MotherKind immerses us in a very contemporary situation, yet deals with timeless themes. Even as Kate's relationship with her mother embodies her childhood and adolescence in another place, she must decide what "home" is, and how to translate all she has come from into what she will carry forward. As her baby grows and her mother becomes increasingly ill, Kate realizes how inextricably linked we are, even in separation -- across generations, cultures, time; across death itself.

It is the triumph of MotherKind that Kate's complex experience of being -- and losing -- a mother is so deeply and luminously portrayed.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375401946
• ISBN13: 9780375401947
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Knopf
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful

America's greatest author triumphs again with this absolutely stunning new work. Returning to themes familiar to her many loyal readers, Phillips incontrovertibly demonstrates that no other author could find so many interesting ways to present the same material again and again. Her boundless creativity and unique ability to take language into new and unexplored realms sets her apart from every other writer. Like so many other devoted fans, I am eagerly awaiting her next great work, which will doubtless offer the same level of pure excellence as this one.

The Comfort of Generations

MotherKind is cathartic. The book is full of humor and insight, and best of all, basic human decency. The relationships between mother, daughter, grandmother, lovers, fathers, friends are familiar and believable, carefully described and absolutely convincing. The resolution of each conflict is so satisfying that MotherKind's conclusion has the comforting resolution of a Bach fugue. Masterful. Thank you, Ms. Phillips!

A wrenching and insightful novel

I found this novel to be extremely moving and luminous. Like all great art, the book takes great risks to achieve its emotionality: it draws on and transforms "real-life" and it even risks what would be in lesser hands sentimentality. The protagonist is a shrewd and funny, yet Phillips doesn't waste our time with a character who uses humor to push away feelings; instead, the novel embraces even the painful responses and arrives at insights that took my breath away.

A Moving Celebration of Life

MotherKind is a novel that perfectly depicts that moment when generations shift and the weight once carried by the parents falls to the shoulders of the child as she begins her own seasons of parenting. Phillips's language is lyrical and rich with sensual detail--blending the experiences of death and birth within the context of everyday life in a way that brings the reader full circle and leaves him/her awed and humbled by the reality of our most primal needs and emotions. Particularly moving are the glimpses back into the marriage of Kate's parents-- those moments that in many ways have defined Kate's life and her own expectations. And then, there is that incredible shift of strength and wisdom that brings Kate into her own landscape. A wonderfully satisfying book.

Motherkind

This graceful, moving novel tells a heroic story of ordinary life in a way that echoes long after the book is finished. The passing of power and responsibity from one generation to another, the bittersweet flow of family energy passing through Kate at the center as the death of her mother overlaps the birth of her son, the struggles of a young blended family trying to gain a foothold under the weight of terminal illness...all told touchingly against a backdrop of seasonal holidays, neighbors, birthdays. For anyone with a family, this is a must read. Men and women alike will find that Motherkind resonates with the reality of modern family life, reminding me of many of my own experiences. It serves as a guide for those of us hoping to face the challenges of birth and death, marriage and divorce with courage and clarity.