November 2024

Mothers! They are the subject of Susan Rieger’s terrific novel, LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER. Here we get a look at three generations of mothers.

Lila Pereira is the first mother we meet in a section called “Lila.” She has spent her life in the limelight as the renowned executive editor of The Washington Globe. She’s been a rather absentee mother --- the kind who bore three daughters and seems to drop in and out of their lives, there when summoned but perhaps in body only and ready to zip off to another program or event. For the steadying force in their lives, her children rely on their father, Joe. He nurtures them and is their main rudder.

Lila can be forgiven on some level as she had just the haunting of a mother figure. When she was two years old, her father institutionalized her mother, Zelda. She and her siblings were told that she was dead. For years, their father had unleashed abuse on their mother, and when she was gone, he tormented his children. So one comes to understand why Lila may be so alienated from her own daughters. She lacked a role model. Everything she has she built on her own.

As Lila is dying, she asks Grace, her youngest daughter, to find out what happened to Zelda. The second section of the book is named “Grace,” and we get to see her as she grows up trying to piece together what is and isn’t present in her life. She is a writer but is not emulating her mother’s style. She writes a novel that closely approximates things that happened in her family. Working through the book, she sees again and again that Zelda being out of the picture has really taken a toll on the family. And she decides to get to the bottom of what happened to her. So she dives into this project with the help of her sisters --- who are lawyers --- and DNA testing. This bring us to the final section, “Zelda.”

Lots of questions are answered, but others come up once those are figured out. A family gets a moment to heal as explanations come forth. LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER would make for a great book group discussion. Be sure to watch or listen to my interview with Susan.