This book made me cry. As an only child / daughter of a difficult alcoholic mother, as the the product of a marriage that was a mistake…. I felt Mary Gordon’s confusion in coming to grips with her mother as my own. I love my mother as if we are connected, but the end of her life came as a relief. I always felt best when alone with my mother as our connection was also strangely viewed by others and I preferred bearing her alcoholic rants alone.