It seems that everyone but me loves
this novel, although it has not become a bestseller.  On the back cover, the feared and respected New York Times
critic Michiko Katutani is quoted describing Mary McGarry Morris as "one
of the most skillful writers at work in America today."  Amazon.com readers rave about The Lost
Mother.  Yet this story of two
children in rural Vermont during the Depression, abandoned by their mother and
living with their financially struggling mother, strikes me as saccharine and
plodding, aimed more at children than adults (except for some suggestions of
potential sexual abuse).  It is narrated
in the third person but mostly takes the point of view of the two young
siblings.  The writing is
over-dramatic.  To illustrate, in the
first chapter, we are told that as little Margaret, just eight years old, cries
for her missing mother, her eleven-year-old bother Thomas and her father each
retreats into his own "cave of loneliness."  The characters are mostly thinly drawn, reminiscent of TV or
movie adaptations of novels by Charles Dickens.  The children go on an improbable adventure in search of their
mother only to discover that she is a sad and selfish woman — imagine their
disappointment.  The book ends
precipitously moving to the future with Margaret and Thomas looking back on
their lives, reflecting on how it all turned out.  The unabridged audiobook is read by Judith Ivey, who works hard
to highlight the corny melodrama.  
Unbearable. 

© 2005 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved.