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from: Scribner
List Price: $24.00Price: $16.00 You Save: $8.00 (33%)as of 03/21/2010 10:27 EDT
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 306.8743
EAN: 9780684850719
Edition: First Edition
ISBN: 0684850710
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 255
Publication Date: May 03, 1999
Publisher: Scribner
Studio: Scribner
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The challenge for mothers of sons is to realize that because we do not share a sexual identity, that because we have not grown up in a male body, we cannot presume to understand everything there is to know about our sons' worlds.
-- Patricia Stevens
In this absolutely superb collection of mothers' personal narratives, some classic writers, as well as exciting new voices, ponder the conflicts and joys of raising sons. Patricia Stevens's Between Mothers and Sons is the first anthology in which women writers attempt to answer the question that all mothers have contemplated in the course of mothering the opposite sex: "Who is this male child who came out of my body?"
After all, the mother/son relationship is the foundation of all male/female connections. Yet in our culture, it's a relationship that has been far less closely observed than the relationship between mother and daughter.
From the earliest days of nursing to the good-byes as college and adulthood appear on the threshold, from adoptive families to biracial, from Native American to African-American mothers, these pages cover a broad range of experience. These writers collectively explore the delights and frustrations, the deep and often-conflicted emotions they feel in their roles as mothers to their male children.
"Diamonds are forever, but love can easily get lost....I picture the broken pieces of my heart inside me like the shrapnel of a war." In Jo-Ann Mapson's heartbreaking "Navigating the Channel Islands," we read of the intense pain that appears in the wake of her adolescent son's rebellion. On a more comical note, Deborah Galyan's "Watching Star Trek with Dylan" is a must for any mother who has wondered about a young son's love of things mechanical. And Valerie Monroe's bittersweet "Feet" will touch every mother on the planet: "As I unwrapped the slippers and carefully placed them on this rug, I thought, they're his feet, after all. And step by step, they will take him away from me."
Between Mothers and Sons resoundingly, if unflinchingly, celebrates this new journey that we are all making with our boys.
Average Rating: 
Rating:  -
I found this anthology wonderfully refreshing, and very validating. It gives affirmation to the intense emotional endeavor of raising a young man, and allows a communal feeling with other mothers on the same journey. The stories are poignantly shared, and are passionately detailed. I recommend this book to any Mother raising a son!
Rating: -
Perhaps this collection resonated more deeply with me than other reviewers because I consider myself a feminist *and* a mother of two spirited sons. My eldest son is only five years old and his nemesis/favorite person in the known universe a mere three and a half, but this rich book struck a chord deep within me that has not been played enough as a busy mother. I couldn't get enough of these esays. I am still hungry for more, so I pick up my pen and write a little bit everyday now.
Rating:  -
As with many short story / essay collections, it is hard to review the book overall as the individual contributions are uneven.
In this case, almost all are moving and at least some will touch a heartstring (or raw nerve!) in every mother.
Many play the feminist angle, which I felt may be somewhat misplaced in a mother-son relationship.
A couple I'd already read in other collections (e.g. `Toddler'), including one of my personal favourites, Jonathan Bing by Priscilla Leigh MacKinley, ... Read More
Rating: -
Each in her own way, the writers in this collection make complex connections -- with their sons and with readers. There's a great range of experiences here for the reader who wants to concentrate on the mother-son relationship rather than on family relationships in general.
I sometimes cried and more often laughed -- but I also thought about my female friends and their sons, and agreed with what I was reading -- then remembered my mother and sisters and their sons, and argued back -- considered ... Read More
Rating: -
I bought Between Mothers and Sons for myself as a Mother's Day gift when my son was 3 months old. I was moved viscerally by the essays contained in this book. Although I do agree with the reviewer from Wisconsin that the collective voice of these essays is limited, I feel that the emotional tumult felt and expressed by these very talented women is universal.
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Dewey Decimal Number: 306.8743
EAN: 9780684850719
Edition: First Edition
ISBN: 0684850710
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 255
Publication Date: May 03, 1999
Publisher: Scribner
Studio: Scribner