Mothers and other strangers by Gina Sorell

 

Name of Book: Mothers and other strangers

Author: Gina Sorell

ISBN: 978-1-938849-89-3

Publisher: Prospect Park books

Type of book: secrets, relationships, religion, karma, mistakes, lies, mother and daughter, accidents, 1950s, 1987, Canada, USA, South Africa, death, coming of age, failure, eating disorder, rape, love, vanity 

Year it was published: 2017

Summary:

"My father proposed to my mother at gunpoint when she was nineteen, and knowing that she was already pregnant with a dead man’s child, she accepted."

Thus begins this riveting story of a woman's quest to understand her recently deceased mother, a glamorous, cruel narcissist who left her only child, Elsie, an inheritance of debts and mysteries. While coping with threats that she suspects are coming from the cult-like spiritual program her mother belonged to, Elsie works to unravel the message her dying mother left for her, a quest that ultimately takes her to the South African family homestead she never knew existed.

Characters: 

Main characters include Elsie, an almost forty year old woman whose mother has passed away and has left her a very complicated legacy of lies and secrets. Elsie is introspective, a talented former ballet dancer and often sees herself as a failure be it marriage or relationships. Rachel is Elsies mother who I see as a sociopath. She has no maternal gene, is charming, charismatic, vain,  puts herself first and has a lot of secrets as well as lies. ( she takes the cake and candles too in all of thriller and domestic novels I read so far...)

Theme:

Relationships are complicated 

Plot:

The story is written in first person narrative from Elsies point of view and begins in 1950s before moving on to 1987, the present year of the story. The novel is best described as coming of age and making peace, but it also offers a very complex mother and daughter relationship, especially when it is stained with numerous secrets. So yes, I highly enjoyed it. 

Author Information:
(From goodreads)

Born in South Africa and raised in Canada, Gina Sorell now resides in Toronto, and lives in a world of words. Some of those words are: writer, namer, creative director, artist, daughter, sister, wife and mother.

After two decades as a working actor of stage and screen in NYC, LA, and Toronto, Gina decided to return to her first love–writing, and graduated with distinction from UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. Gina likes to balance out the long solitary hours of novel writing, with her work as a brand storyteller under the banner of her own agency, Words Make The Brand.

Opinion:

First of all, a very killer beginning sentence. ( seriously, who will not be seduced by " My father proposed to my mother at gunpoint when she was nineteen, and knowing that she was already pregnant with a dead man's child, she accepted. (11)) but a fair warning must be given: despite the cover and the sentence, this novel isn't a thriller or domestic suspense. Instead it's about growth and taking stock of ones life when it seems as if life has already thrown plenty of lemons in ones way. It's a very intimate story and towards the end it becomes a bit understandable of the pain that the characters went through. There are no right answers or choices. Instead it calls for compassion and understanding.

This was given for review  

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)