We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,883,875.52 | Books Available: 683,649 | Members Online: 198

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - My Mother's Daughter

My Mother's Daughter
Author: Judith Henry Wall

Justine and Martha Claire Mayfield were born shortly after World War I and grew to womanhood as both sisters and inseparable friends, yet each harbored very different dreams for her future. — Martha Claire envisions the American dream: a husband, a house, and -- most of all -- a baby. She marries Grayson Stewart, son of the town's most succes... more »sful businessman. He is everything Martha Claire could ever have hoped for in a man -- handsome, affectionate, and considerate. However, more than a husband -- more than anything in the world -- Martha Claire wants a child. Everything in her life has been dedicated to preparing herself for motherhood. Without it, she feels she can never be complete.

Justine has a very different plan for herself, and despite the similarity of the sisters' upbringing, she and Martha Claire are very different people. Chafing at the narrow confines of her lazy Texas town, Justine joins the Women's Army Corps when World War II begins. She envisions a glamorous, adventure-filled life on her own as a photographer.

So it is with no little irony that when the war ends, Martha Claire is to be found back home, feathering a still-empty nest, while Justine returns from Europe suffering both the physical and mental distress of finding herself pregnant and unwed.

It is from this starting point that Judith Henry Wall's poignant and affecting novel follows these women as they set about living lives of compromise: for Martha Claire, the agony of being barren; for Justine, the frustration of loving her daughter, Iris, yet longing for the freedom to live life on her own terms.

With much of the story seen through the eyes of Cissy, the daughter Martha Claire makes her own through adoption -- and whose own story becomes an integral part of the novel -- My Mother's Daughter takes the reader on a journey into a world of seeming comfort and happiness that masks the darkness and frustrations and deadening discontent of unfulfilled dreams and -- ultimately -- to the worst kind of betrayal one sister can inflict upon another.

Through the epic events and tumultuous changes of the second half of the twentieth century, and through the little tragedies that mark daily lives, the reader comes to know intimately and care deeply for these women and to understand the world they lived in and the forces that shaped them. My Mother's Daughter is masterful, memorable storytelling of the highest order.

ISBN-13: 9780684837666
ISBN-10: 0684837668
Publication Date: 5/3/2000
Pages: 432
Rating:

Currently 3.7/5 Stars.

3.7 stars, based on 7 ratings

Publisher: Simon Schuster
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

Sloane D. (sloaned) reviewed My Mother's Daughter on 11/1/2006

Helpful Score: 1

Great Author, Had trouble finding old books ,but was glad when I did.

Share/Like this Review?

Read All 2 Book Reviews of "My Mothers Daughter"

Genres:

Literature & Fiction >> General >> Contemporary
Literature & Fiction >> Genre Fiction >> Family Saga
Literature & Fiction >> Women's Fiction >> Domestic Life
Literature & Fiction >> Women's Fiction >> Mothers & Children
Literature & Fiction >> Women's Fiction >> Sisters

Back to the Top ↑

Search - My Mother's Daughter

Top Member Book Reviews

Loading...