the almost moon

Teri Gross recently interviewed Alice Sebold about her new book 'The Almost Moon'. The book has gotten mixed reviews but the interview is worth listening to. Below is a link to the interview.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15284388




From Publishers Weekly's review of the novel:
'Sebold's disappointing second novel (after much-lauded The Lovely Bones) opens with the narrator's statement that she has killed her mother. Helen Knightly, herself the mother of two daughters and an art class model old enough to be the mother of the students who sketch her nude figure, is the dutiful but resentful caretaker for her senile 88-year-old mother, Clair. One day, traumatized by the stink of Clair's voided bowels and determined to bathe her, Helen succumbs to a life-long dream and smothers Clair, who had sucked the life out of [Helen] day by day, year by year.'

I must confess to feeling rage when caring for and doing unpleasant tasks for Mom. She will lash out at me, calling me names in her humiliation. Even though I know her words are formed in a brain riddled with dementia, the hardened arteries starving her brain of needed blood, even though I know that, old injustices, real or imagined or inflated will arise in me and the desire to exclude her from my life, be done with her is frighteningly strong. So in a way, killing her. Luckily, Mom's foul attacks usually last a short while and she becomes a frail, dear soul, and it's a pleasure to help her.

Using humor can transform Mom quickly. In no time she will announce that she's going to whip our bottoms if we don't leave her alone. Said with a twinkle in her eye.