What My Mother and I Don't Talk About Fifteen Writers Break the Silence

What My Mother and I Don't Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence edited by Michele Filgate 288 pages

"Fifteen brilliant writers explore what we don’t talk to our mothers about, and how it affects us, for better or for worse. As an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took her more than a decade to realize what she was actually trying to write: how this affected her relationship with her mother. When it was finally published, the essay went viral, shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, and many others. The outpouring of responses gave Filgate an idea, and the resulting anthology offers a candid look at our relationships with our mothers.

While some of the writers in this book are estranged from their mothers, others are extremely close. Leslie Jamison writes about trying to discover who her seemingly perfect mother was before ever becoming a mom. In Cathi Hanauer’s hilarious piece, she finally gets a chance to have a conversation with her mother that isn’t interrupted by her domineering (but lovable) father. André Aciman writes about what it was like to have a deaf mother. Melissa Febos uses mythology as a lens to look at her close-knit relationship with her psychotherapist mother. And Julianna Baggott talks about having a mom who tells her everything."   summary from Goodreads

I thought this was an interesting book. As with many collections of essays, I liked some more than others. However as a collection, the book is powerful. The mother-daughter relationship has been written about, by so many people, so much --- but this book also includes essays by sons, so that was refreshing.