May 2008: Books About Motherhood

Of Men and Their Mothers (William Morrow)

By Mameve Medwed

Mameve Medwed's Of Men and Their Mothers takes a humorous and intelligent look at the often dysfunctional relationships of mothers and sons, wives and mothers-in-law, even mothers and daughters. Heroine Maisie Grey finds herself up to her neck in an ongoing mess of familial ties.

First and foremost, Maisie cannot free herself of her disapproving ex-mother-in-law, the hypercritical and controlling Ina Pollack. Though Mrs. Pollack has won the battle over her son Rex, Maisies's ex, she continues to wield the power of the pocketbook over Maisie by paying for grandson Tommy's private school, cell phone, and other niceties. As heir to the Pollock's Frozen Chicken Potpie empire, Mrs. Pollack wreaks havoc long past the day the ink has dried on Maisie and Rex's divorce papers.

When Tommy shows up with girlfriend September Silva and her two suitcases of black shredded clothes, Maisie becomes an instant surrogate mother to a dreadlocked, heavily pierced vegan whose hands are covered with skull rings. As if that weren't enough, Maisie's commitment-phobic lawyer boyfriend foists his pro bono client, Darlene Lattanzo, a young mother battling her mother-in-law for custody of her baby son, into the picture as an assistant in Maisie's one-woman business.

Eager not to make the same belittling, hurtful mistakes Mrs. Pollock has perpetrated upon her, Maisie proceeds with caution and tolerance for all. In the end, good outwits evil, anger melts into understanding, and Maisie even gets the loving boyfriend she deserves. Medwed's pleasant, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based fairy tale flies sweetly from page to page.
-- Jamie Caploe

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