It’s going to be okay. Because there’s logic to a ghost, rules and methods for getting rid of one, unlike depression, for which there is nothing but stubborn despair. [loc. 2342]
Abby and her husband Ralph are both children of dysfunctional mothers, and have been living with Ralph's mother Laura. Now Laura has committed suicide in the basement, but she's not gone: she seems to be haunting the house, or perhaps haunting Ralph (who has his own mental health issues). Abby, scrubbing the blood out of the carpets, is determined to have a new start. She's very attached to one of the elderly patients she cares for, Mrs Bondy, a non-verbal woman who is at once a sweet mother-figure and Abby's 'baby'. Abby wants to start a family, to be the kind of mother that neither she nor Ralph ever had. But Laura's ghost, according to a (probably fraudulent) medium, would rather see Ralph dead than happy with Abby. And Mrs Bondy's daughter is planning to remove her from the care home where Abby works.
Motherthing is described as a blend of domestic horror and dark humour, but I found the humour scatalogical and the 'horror' too psychological. I did learn about the psychiatric industry around 'borderline parents' -- that is, parents with Borderline Personality Disorder -- and the notion of BPD fleas: 'the little bugs of dysfunction that mothers like ours leave crawling all over and inside you. “If you know you’ve got them and you know what they are, you won’t give them to anyone else.” [loc. 1176] Abby is a marvellously-written character whom I disliked intensely, which sums up my reaction to the whole novel: splendid prose, but I didn't care for the plot or the characters.
Fulfils the ‘first word is the’ rubric of the 52 books in 2023 challenge.
No comments:
Post a Comment