Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published in USA
Apr 2007
240 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
Before A.M. Homes was born, she was put up for adoption. Her birth mother was a twenty-two- year-old single woman who was having an affair with a much older married man with children of his own. The Mistress’s Daughter is the story of what happened when, thirty years later, her birth parents came looking for her.
Homes, renowned for the psychological accuracy and emotional intensity of her storytelling, tells how her birth parents initially made contact with her and what happened afterward (her mother stalked her and appeared unannounced at a reading) and what she was able to reconstruct about the story of their lives and their families. Her birth mother, a complex and lonely woman, never married or had another child, and died of kidney failure in 1998; her birth father, who initially made overtures about inviting her into his family, never did.
"Novelist Homes's searing essay about meeting her biological parents 31 years after they gave her up for adoption forms the first half of this much-anticipated memoir, but the rest of the book doesn't match its visceral power." - PW.
"Starred Review. Homes masterfully distills angst and discovery into a riveting tale of nature and nurture that encompasses America's great patchwork of immigrants and secrets." - Booklist.
"Homes draws you in from the first sentence and holds your interest throughout, sharing her fear, disappointment, pathos, and bathos." - Library Journal.
"Ultimately off-putting and unappealing, due to a whiny, self-pitying attitude conveyed in overwrought prose. " - Kirkus.
This information about The Mistress's Daughter shown above was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. In most cases, the reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that the reviews shown do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, please send us a message with the mainstream media reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Homes is the author of novels such as This Book Will Save Your Life and Music for Torching.
Become a Member and discover books that entertain, engage & enlighten.
The Northern Reach
by W.S. Winslow
What is the weight of the stories we choose to tell...and the burdens of those we hide?
Reader Reviews
The Lost Apothecary
by Sarah Penner
A forgotten history. A secret network of women. A legacy of poison and revenge. Welcome to The Lost Apothecary.
Reader Reviews
Band of Sisters
by Lauren Willig
"A crackling portrayal of everyday American heroines…A triumph."
— Fiona Davis
Visitors can view some of BookBrowse for free. Full access is for members only.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
