|
Showing 1 - 1 of
1 matches in All Departments
With subtle, bemused humor and an unerring eye for human frailty,
Michel Layaz is known for his tender writing about the hidden
tensions within families, the awkwardness of adolescence, and the
drama of intimacy between friends and lovers. His fifth novel, My
Mother's Tears, is his most poignant yet. The adult narrator of My
Mother's Tears has returned to clean out his childhood home after
his mother's death. In thirty short chapters, each focused on a
talismanic object or resonant episode from his childhood, the
narrator tries to solve the mystery behind the flood of tears with
which his strikingly beautiful, intelligent, and inscrutable mother
greeted his birth. Like insects preserved in amber, these
objects--an artificial orchid, a statue, a pair of green pumps, a
steak knife, a fishing rod and reel, among others--are surrounded
by an aura that permeates the narrator's life. Interspersed with
these chapters are fragments from the narrator's conversation with
his present lover, a woman who demands that he verbally confront
his past. This difficult conversation charts his gradual liberation
from the psychological wounds he suffered growing up. Not only an
account of a son's attempt to understand his enigmatic mother, My
Mother's Tears is also a moving novel about language and memory
that explores the ambivalent power of words to hurt and to heal, to
revive the past and to put childhood demons to rest.
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.