I came across Carol Bly's 'My Dear Republican Mother' essay in 'From Daughters to Mothers book.
Reading it I felt thatthis is the kind of work, editors are talking of when they talk about work with layers in it. While she is writing about the mother she knew for the first 12 years of her life, its also about the times then, the presence or lack of psychological attitudes. At the language level, she translates the behavior of people then into the terms of psychology that we use now to recognise them.
1 comment:
I agree, as in The Bully who Rules the World, Bly's writing is a clear and resonant as words in a poem, a child's whole world in a phrase.
It had me reflecting on my own life and how we have the benefit and challenge of learning to go beyond our mothers. I hope to get other of her nonfiction books.
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