Her Mother's Daughter by Alice Fitzgerald

          Her Mother's Daughter is a very emotional book told from the perspective of two generations of one family - the mother damaged by her childhood and the daughter damaged by her mother's childhood.  The insight by the author in to the events themselves and their knock on effects in Josephine's adult life are well thought through and are revealed to us piecemeal by Josephine herself.  We also get to hear her daughter, Claire's, perspective on how her mother's sudden mood swings affect her daily life.

This book serves as a reminder that what we say and how we conduct ourselves is noticed and felt by our children in more ways than we can ever imagine.  The two voices are entirely distinct and clear throughout the book, my only real reservation was that Claire sometimes felt like a device to show just how far Josephine was sinking beneath the weight of her trauma rather than an individual in her own right.

The relationship between Claire and her brother Thomas is entirely believable, veering between the desire to protect him from the worst of her mother's anger and then being completely infuriated with him herself.  The natural jealousy between the siblings is well captured and even though we never get to hear Thomas's voice we do get a sense of the little boy through Claire's eyes.  Tellingly, we never really get more than a fleeting glimpse of the children from Josephine, she is too locked in her own past to really engage with the present in anything but the most superficial way.

It felt to me that most of the tale is told by Claire but this could be simply because I enjoyed her sections so much more than those written from Josephine's perspective.  Her innocent and yet somehow knowing voice reaches out to you and pulls you deep in to the story and refuses to let you go with her simple joy in sweets and her burgeoning self-image issues generated by her mother's barbed comments and her own pleasure in being told that she looks just like her mother who is acknowledged to be a beauty.

The enduring strength of the relationship between Michael and Josephine comes as a relief.  No matter how frustrated they get somehow they have managed to cleave together, even if sometimes it is just their upbringing keeping them together to "save face" they seem to power through it.  No quick throwing in of the towel when things get bumpy.  Not enough is made of Michael's strength in holding the family together as best he can with two young children who are old enough to see the cracks and question the flimsy paper over them whilst supporting a traumatised wife who cannot move past the horrible events in her formative years.

In some respects this is a very uncomfortable read but one that I raced through and was unwilling to put down.  It also made me very grateful for my secular upbringing and that there were no predators lieing in wait for me to wreak havoc with my mental wellbeing down the years.

I RECEIVED A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK FROM READERS FIRST IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW.