Believe me, I know how sappy that last sentence sounds. But "The Story of Mothers and Daughters" weaves a repeating pattern of comings together and drawings apart: the union of pregnancy, followed by the separation of birth; the sweet closeness of childhood, then the stormy estrangements of adolescence; the reconciliation of adulthood before the loss to death. And finally, the daughter becoming a mother, beginning the whole cycle anew.
But it's not all roses and greeting cards. A family can be a bruising thing, and the damage is sometimes lasting. One grown woman says of her mother, with a chillingly calm bitterness, "She was not my friend, and ... she's not someone that I would want to know, want to keep in my life."
Mostly, however, these women have come to treasure their mothers and daughters, and their tenderness -- often salted with an amused exasperation -- speaks to the soul. If you can keep a dry eye as several describe their emotions after the deaths of their mothers, you'd better check yourself for a heartbeat.
Woman or girl, man or boy, you won't walk away unchanged by this hour."
