Like Mother, Like Mother by Susan Rieger

 

My thoughts

This is a touch review to write. The book was wonderful and beautifully written. It tugged at my heart in so many ways. 

Three generations of women are told about in this story. Zelda was a very abused mother. She had three children. Two little girls and a son. She was put into a mental hospital when the youngest child, Lila, was only two. Lila received the brunt of the abuse. She was mouthy they said. Their father was a horrible man. Lila married and had three daughters. The youngest is Grace. Grace is the one that you will hear the most about and from.

Lila and her siblings were told that their mother died in the mental hospital. There was no funeral and no death certificate. When Lila went away to college she never looked back. She did keep in touch with her brother and sister but their father she hated. She went on to marry a wonderful man and had three girls. She was also a top rated reporter. She gave work her heart and soul. Her husband was a lawyer and more of a mother to their children. She loved them but didn't know how to be a mother. 

Grace, the youngest child, went on to be a reporter also. Though she had some hard feelings for her mother she still loved her. She wrote a book and after her mother's death regretted writing it. It was based on her family just with different names. Grace always thought that Zelda was alive. Lila never cared. She never tried to find her. Grace wanted to know after her mother died. 

This story goes through a lot of emotional things and will definitely make you shed some tears. I liked almost all of the characters. I despised Aldo, the father. He was a horrible person. I also did not like Zelda. While a part of me understood why she did what she did I just could not muster enough forgiveness for her. She left her children with a tyrant. An abuser. She knew what he was. Yes she had good reason but still she should have got her children. She should have fought for them. Even back in those years she could have gotten some kind of help. I just didn't feel sorry for her. I did feel for Lila. I adored Grace and Ruth. And Joe. And Frances....

This was a tough one for me to read but it was so good. So well written. It had the feels you expect. The story was told in a way that made you think about some things. Like how Lila was how she was and how her relationship with Grace was the way it was. They were so much alike in so many ways.

Thank you #NetGalley, #RandomHousePublishing #TheDialPress, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

Five stars!

About

An enthralling novel about three generations of strong-willed women, unknowingly shaped by the secrets buried in their family’s past.

“A novel in the spirit of Meg Wolitzer, Jean Hanff Korelitz, and the great Nora Ephron. Who says comedy is dead? It’s all here—the joyful craziness, the wisecracking newswoman, the family secrets with a twist of lime.”—Allegra Goodman, bestselling author of Sam

Detroit, 1960. Lila Pereira is two years old when her angry, abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum. Lila never sees her mother again. Three decades later, having mustered everything she has—brains, charm, talent, blonde hair—Lila rises to the pinnacle of American media as the powerful, brilliant executive editor of The Washington Globe. Lila unapologetically prioritizes her career, leaving the rearing of her daughters to her generous husband, Joe. He doesn’t mind—until he does.

But Grace, their youngest daughter, feels abandoned. She wishes her mother would attend PTA meetings, not White House Correspondents dinners. As she grows up, she cannot shake her resentment. She wants out from under Lila’s shadow, yet the more she pushes back, the more Lila seems to shape her life. Grace becomes a successful reporter, even publishing a bestselling book about her mother, but, in the process of writing it, she realizes how little she knows about her own family. Did Lila’s mother, Grace’s grandmother, die in that asylum? Is refusal to look back the only way to create a future? How can you ever be yourself, Grace wonders, if you don’t know where you came from?

Spanning generations, and populated by unforgettable, complex characters, Like Mother, Like Mother is an exhilarating, searching portrait of family, marriage, ambition, power, the stories we inherit, and the lies we tell in order to become the people we believe we’re meant to be